New Friends
by borismortys
Summary: After meeting Mr. House The Courier sets out to form a team to take on the wasteland, in his journey the Courier will make friends and enemies.
1. New Friends

**Author's note**

**Hello thank you for reading this. This is my first fan fic so please feel free to give me some notes on things i should work on. Also Fallout New Vegas is property of Bethesda Soft works bla bla bla i own nothing.  
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**New Friends**

Mornings in the new Vegas strip were hardly beautiful. There was something quite mesmerizing about this morning however. Aside for the occasional NCR drunk and the foul smell of vomit Pablo the courier couldn't remember a more beautiful morning than the one today.

**"**Maybe I'm just in a good mood**"** he thought to himself.

He exited the gates of the lucky 38 casino and walked towards his awaiting companions.

Rex the cyber dog began wagging his tail at the sight of the courier announcing his happiness trough a couple barks.

**"**Brown nose!**"** Exclaimed the young woman being witness to the dog's attention towards his new owner.

The young man known as the courier fixed his short black hair into a green bandana that he had picked up from the corpse from a dead Great Khan gang member, after he and Craig Boone had defused the situation on Boulder city.

His brown eyes spotted a few stunned on lookers who were bearing witness to someone exiting the lucky 38. But he paid no attention to them since he had little time before proceeding with the rest of the mission.

He smiled to himself and walked towards the girl who most people on Freeside assumed was his younger sister.

"So, how did it go?" Asked the girl

"Good Veronica. It went better than I expected."

"So is mister House a vampire?" The night before they made camp. And while Rex slept the Courier vividly explained his theory. He believed after watching Dracula on his pip boy that Mr. House was a vampire that lived in the Lucky 38.

"More like a giant computer." He sighed

"Yes! You owe me twenty caps!"

"Ugh! Fine". His eyes narrowed as he scoffed and pulled the money from his pockets.

Veronica the brotherhood scribe celebrated her victory over the courier by attempting to dance but stopped in her tracks when she noticed the gathering crowd of on lookers.

"Veronica"

"Yeah? What is it?"

"Listen I need to split for a bit I'll be around four today. Explained the courier"

"Wait where are you going?"

"I have to pick up somebody I'll return as soon as I can. I promise".

Veronica had been traveling with Pablo for two weeks now on his quest to find this Benny guy. She had lived a hard life in the Brotherhood of steel, by the time she was eighteen years old she felt she had already experienced all the crazy things grownups do.

She had loved and lost her lover to the wasteland. Although she had tried to look for her the first time she took the job of a supply runner for the Brotherhood, she was nowhere to be found but she kept looking.

Two years later and she had found nothing. No trails no clues absolutely nothing! Eventually she gave up when she realized that she was losing one of her other loves the Brotherhood itself.

The Hidden Valley chapter of the Brotherhood of steel was dying. Not the quick death most poor bastards got on the wasteland but instead a slow and miserable death. They were becoming irrelevant.

So she made it her mission to try to save the brotherhood from itself and when she met the Pablo she had found perhaps the only man who took her seriously and valued her input to the team. She would save the brotherhood with his help.

When she asked Pablo why did he take her along he said.

"The Forecaster told me to" "he foresaw you playing a vital role in my future"

"The little boy? Really?"

Now it was all going to end.

Veronica!

"What? What is it?"

"Quit dozing off! I'm trying to explain what our job is".

"Sorry I was just….."

"Don't matter look from now we're working for Mister House".

"Really? What could an old computer possibly want?"

"A lot apparently I have to retrieve the platinum chip and we're getting paid a lot of caps for it".

"Also mister House gave us a suite"

"What? No way! A suite for each one of us?" She looked at the size of the building and began day dreaming of her own suite with robotic butlers.

"No just one suite. But it has multiple rooms".

"Damn it! I always wanted a bachelorette pad!"

"Sorry kid you can't always get what you want. But you can get pretty close". He smiled

"Oh well at least this time I can have my own room and not have to listen to your antics". She grinned

"Ha-ha very funny veronica. Please try not to walk in next time I have company in my room".

"I thought she was trying to eat you! Well then again Beatrix is a…."

"Ghoul?"

"Don't remind me I still got bruises from that night". He shook his head

"Well Alas the Garrets don't really have any other female workers. What did you want me to do?"

"I don't know maybe wait until we can go to Gomorrah!" "Oh wait! Here's a great idea get yourself a normal girl!"

"A normal girl? And by your definition. What is a normal girl? Hm?"

Veronica brought her right hand to her chin and made a thinking man impersonation. After a whole minute she said.

"Maybe someone who doesn't get paid to have sex would be a good start?" She jested

The Courier just frowned at her. Such was the price for taking her along.

"Wait you must have meet some decent females on your travels. Since you came back from the grave all Zombie like".

Veronica…..

"Brrrraaaaiiins!" She mimicked the walking stance the Zombies on her holotapes did.

"I swear it's like traveling with a child!" The Courier groaned in frustration.

"Hey! I'm not a child!" "I'm almost twenty years old!" She roared

The courier just rolled his eyes

"Besides you're not that old! You're barely twenty four!"

"I'm old enough to be your big brother" he joked

"Ha! If that's the case you're terrible at it!" She kept complaining. Her face had taken a very serious look as she began pacing back and forth the entrance to the casino.

"You hardly laugh at my jokes. You never buy me any candy, you didn't get me the pretty dress I asked you to get me. You are a terrible big brother!"

Veronica….

"Wait what were we talking about again?" I forgot

"Normal girls I've met on my travels" he said in a neutral tone

"Well… did you meet any? You must have met some right? There has to be some good looking women somewhere. There can't all be ugly men with Mohawks running around killing people. If not I'm doomed."

All of the sudden she looked sad. Thinking of the status of her own romantic life.

The courier gathered his thoughts then answered.

**"**Well there was this chick in Good Springs her name is Sunny Smiles. I don't think she's into me tough, but the way her hips swayed when she…"

"Sunny smiles? What kind of name is that?" Veronica interrupted rather rudely

"What a dumb name!" "I've met fire hydrants with better names than Sunny Smiles. I wonder what her father's name was".

"Frozen Cucumber?"

"Silent Toad?"

"Sitting Deathclaw?"

"Enough! I get it she has a terrible name!" Interrupted the Courier

"Ok listen I have a job to do! If we stand here arguing we're going to be here all day!" The courier protested

"Fine! But this isn't over." "Now I want some ice cream do you think they have ice cream in the strip?" Veronica began looking everywhere.

The courier just sighed and said. "I want you to take Rex with you and enter the Lucky 38 to my suite and wait for me there until I get back."

"That's it?" She asked

"Well maybe clean it up a little bit"

"Great! now you want me to be a maid!." "I'm telling you Pablo I wouldn't know clean from a raider's ass! My bunk was the messiest bunk you have ever seen!"

"They say I brought cockroaches back into the bunker" .She said finally

"Bunker? What are you talking about?" He asked confused

"Oh nothing for you to worry about just yet." She answered cryptically. "Now there is just one final question before I become the first female to enter the Lucky 38 in two hundred years."

Hm?

"Can I order room service?" She asked making puppy eyes

The courier couldn't help himself and smiled to his companion. "Well I don't know anything about the cooking skills of securytrons but if they can cook sure! Ask Victor."

Veronica squealed and ran off with Rex. leaving the Courier hitting his forehead with the palm of his hand.

Veronica found herself in a new adventure along with Rex who was just standing there looking cool as usual. The elevator they were in seemed to take its sweet time to reach its destination so she looked at Rex and asked him.

"Are you excited Rex?"

The dog just wagged his tail

"Geez you are really freaking me out right now. Why can't I find people who seemed surprised at something like I am? Just hopeless."

The door opened leaving a dazzled Veronica in state of absolute awe.

"By Father Elijah's magic underpants! This place is awesome!" Veronica ran from the elevator admiring the play room, the kitchen, the bathroom and the two bedrooms. As she ran into the master bedroom she was in love.

It had to be the biggest bed she had ever seen. Her life on the Brotherhood had been quite opaque compared to all this luxuries.

She climbed on top of the bed and began jumping up and down laughing. Then let herself go and landed on the soft mattress. It was then than Rex jumped on the bed and proceeded to sleep.

"You know Rex, I like the way you think" she began to feel tired and slowly but surely drifted off to sleep.

Four hours later Rex the cyber dog was wide awake and fully intent on ruining veronica's sleep. He began licking her face and whine loudly until Veronica started coming to.

"Rex… leave me alone….. I want to go back to sleep."

"I need my beauty sleep you know we can't all be naturally handsome like you."

Rex let out a proud bark then began panting. Then he heard the sound of the elevator made when it began moving. Making him run out of the room to investigate the noise. Leaving a stunned sleepy Veronica who finally made the effort to get out of bed.

"Wait Rex! Where are you going?"

"Damn dog! There better be a good reason for you to run off like that!"

Veronica began walking towards the door when she saw Rex sniffing at the elevator door. She immediately lost interest and walked back into the room when she heard the elevator door open, as she turned around to see who it was nothing could have prepared the young scribe for what she was about to see.

"What the…"

Veronica could not believe her eyes. Alone in a hotel suite with the only weapon at her disposal was her trusty power fist, so she knew she had no chance surviving a fight against that creature.

Veronica's face was a mix between terror and amusement as the "mutie" as she called them walked through the elevator door. It had to be the weirdest nightkin she had ever seen it was dress as a farmer and wore sunglasses. Right at the moment Veronica began questioning herself whether she was seeing things now, the mutant noticed her.

Its voice brought Veronica to the point of just running and hiding under the bed.

"Becky! Little Becky!"

Who the fu….. was all veronica could say before the nightkin rushed to her with a speed that didn't give her time to react.

Before she could react in any way the mutant had her in its arms giving her the strongest hug she had ever received. She almost felt her bones crunching.

"Come here and give your grandma some sugar!"

"What? Who?" Was all she mumble before the nightkin gave her a kiss on her forehead.

"Eww! That's gross and man your breath is terrible."

It was then when she heard the laughter of the courier who had been watching the whole encounter from inside the elevator.

Furious veronica demanded an explanation!

"Damn you Pablo what the hell was that?"

"Veronica meet Lily"

"Lily meet Veronica"

The nightkin turned towards the courier and said

"Jimmy why did you take little Becky to this mean people place? This is no place for good children to be!"

"I'm not a child!" Pouted veronica

"Why do you call me Beck…..?"

"Veronica… let's go to my room and I'll explain everything"

Lily seemed confused as she took to her new surroundings among them as Rex the cyber dog who was wagging his tail at the new arrival. Lily bent over and looked straight at Rex and asked.

"George! Why the long face? Did your wife leave you again?"

Rex just tilted his head and began whining

"Oh George you! Leo says you're funny!"

Veronica and the courier walked into the room. Then Veronica crossed her arms and unleashed the most serious look she could muster.

"I'm gonna give myself wrinkles" she thought to herself.

" Now do you mind explaining me what the hell is going on?" She demanded but the courier seemed to be staring at something else.

"Helloooo aren't you going to answer me?"

"What the hell did you do to my bed?" He asked at the once peaceful neat bed. The pillows were on the floor and the comforter had dried mud steps that resembled Veronica's footsteps.

"Your bed? It's my bed! I called dibs!"

"Like hell you did! I got us this suite." "Therefore the master bedroom belongs to me!"

Veronica's face was a shade of red and looked about ready to attack and attack she did.

"Ow! Damn it veronica quit trying to bite my hand!"

Veronica kept trying to do until she heard a loud growl coming from her stomach

"You are hungry huh?"

"I'm starving." She said with a faint smile

Alright let's go get you something to eat then. He smiled at girl who was feral a second ago now all calm and happy with the thought of some noodles and a Nuka Cola.

"So what's the deal with the mutie?"

"Her name is Lily"

"Alright what's the deal with Lily?" She asked

"I met her in Jacobstown when I went there to get Rex a brain transplant. She's really nice; she thinks I'm her long lost grandchild Jimmy. And since you and me kind of look alike she believes you are little Becky Jimmy's sister."

Veronica's face was full of confusion. Slowly evaluating the pros and cons of the situation then she came to a conclusion.

"Grandma huh? Can she knit me a sweater?"

"Veronica we live in the desert. why would you ever need a sweater?"

"I still want one though I don't care where we live." "We could live in New Reno or the Capital Wasteland I still want a sweater."

"So what are we doing tomorrow?" she asked with excitement for a new adventure.

"Actually I need to pick up a couple more people for the team"

"Can I come?" She asked with anticipation

"No... sorry but you can go grocery shopping with Lily and Rex"

"Yeah… the people on Freeside are really going to love a super mutant in their store."

"So you are forming a team huh? What for?"

"I don't know whatever House's plan is" I guess he shrugged

"So what is my role in the team? Am I the communication's expert the scout, the incredibly pretty but very wise for her young age comic relief?"

"You… are… the mascot!" He chuckled which earned him a mean look plus Veronica pinching his arm as they walked to the elevator to get some food.


	2. Ice Cream

**Ice Cream**

Friday August 18th 9:30 AM

Ralph considered himself one if not the best sales man in Freeside. Along with the self proclaimed good looks of a movie star, his skills gave him every right to be cocky according to him.

It wasn't all just for show though. If you had the caps he could forge anything you wanted. Passports, credit checks, once he even forged a perfect copy of the declaration of Independence for a very old man with a patriotic fetish. He never considered himself easy to intimidate until now.

"What do you mean you don't have any ice cream?"

He looked at the young woman who was glaring at him. If you could turn a pout into a weapon he was sure he would be dead by now

"I'm sorry kid but the only place you can get ice cream in New Vegas is the casinos" "or perhaps Jacobstown but it's very dangerous over there." "They say that there are super mutans living in the forest and they kidnap people to turn them into slaves."

"Oh trust me I know all about super mutants" said the girl with a cocky smile.

"Do you?" Asked Ralph

"Totally. I happen to live with one, and they are awesome!"

Ralph started laughing so hard he almost chocked. He could hardly believe the girls nerve and bravado.

"Sure Veronica and I am a walking Mirelurk with a speech impediment" chuckled Ralph while the young girl just glared at him.

"Now he asked what else can I do for you?" "Besides the ice cream of course"

Veronica sighed and then asked "do you have any food?"

"Sure do kid we just got a shipment of Brahmin meat, potatoes, fruits and lots of vegetables what are you hungry for?" Asked Ralph with his salesman's game on.

"I didn't mean that crap! Said" Veronica who looked insulted at Ralph

"I want the good stuff! Nukas, Noodles, chips, bubble gum, and nachos! Man I love nachos!" Said veronica who caught herself drooling and gently rubbed it off her lips.

"Yeah... we got those too." "How much do you want?"

Veronica pulled a lot of caps from her pockets and grinned "as many as these caps can afford."

Veronica grabbed her groceries and turned to leave when Ralph stopped her

"Hey Kid! Say to hi to the Courier for me alright?" "Tell him we all appreciate what he is doing for Freeside"

"I will" said veronica then left.

Friday August 18th 9:32 AM

"One and a two and a three" said Timmy as he shook his hips to the beat on his head.

"Oh baby! you drive me wild!" Timmy proceeded to hum the rest of the song, as he danced the way he was taught two years ago when he joined the Kings.

"Will you stop that? You're making me look bad!" Said Jim formerly known as Jimmy

Timmy stopped dancing looking at his twin brother and asked him

"What is it now Jimmy?"

"Jim! My name is Jim! I'm not a kid anymore. I'm older than you damn it!"

"Yeah only for five minutes" said Timmy who was sick of his brother's obsession with being a big shot. Ever since they were kids Jimmy always wanted to be somebody important. When they joined the Kings Jimmy was happy for a while, now recently he began complaining that the King was holding him back and that no one appreciated his hard work.

"Brother, Jim can you please stop harassing me! I got to practice my routine." "The king is expecting a top notch performance tonight."

"Ha! The King is a moron!" "Why do you want to impress him so much? We both know all he ever does is keep people with potential down."

"What are you talking about? The king accepted us! He feeds us! He gives us a place to live! You know brother if you didn't act like a complete ass! He would be nice to you too"

Jim scoffed loudly then turned his attention to his task placing a flyer on a wall.

"What are you doing standing there? Help me out here! The Omertas are paying us to place this Gomorrah flyers all over Freeside!"

"I don't know Jimmy….. I don't want to piss off the Garrets." "Did you hear what happened to Caleb?"

"McCaffery? I drop chems with him once in a while, what about him?"

"He's dead! the Courier killed him!" Said Timmy who was truly frightened

"I heard he was having a smoke on the strip. Then the Courier walked up to him and ripped his heart out with his hand! Then he ate his heart!" "He ate his heart jimmy!"

"Jim! My name is Jim you moron! I can't believe you fell for that shit!"

"The Courier is a man not some God like creature that kills people with laser eyes, besides I don't think he is real"

"I saw him once Jimmy! he came to see the King. He was with his sister and the King gave Rex to him as a gift"

Jim started laughing and began mocking his brother

"You may be my flesh and blood but you really are a fucking idiot!" "That's what you get from listening to rumors. The King would never ever give Rex away especially to a stranger!"

As if on cue they both heard a familiar happy bark behind them. They both turned their heads towards the sound.

"Rex?" Both brothers asked in unison as they watched the cyber dog wagging his tail towards a young girl with groceries exiting Mick and Ralphs.

Jim quickly forgot what he was supposed to do and looked at the female. She must be around nineteen or twenty, and she was decent looking. That was enough for Jim whose last experience in the Atomic Wrangler left him scarred so he would have to find pleasure elsewhere.

He found himself grabbing an old sock and stuffing it into his pants. Checking his hair for any mistakes then proceeded to strut towards the girl.

"Hey Baby you looking for a good time?" The girl just didn't even made eye contact.

"Nope"

"You are not from around here aren't you?" "Where are you from?" The girl just kept walking but answered with a sigh.

"Yes you are right. I'm not from around here; actually I'm an alien. I come from a planet with reptile like people and I'm disguising as a human so I may learn from them, so my people can conquer and eat them later."

Jim had no comeback from that one. Instead he got angry.

"Listen sweetheart Freeside is a dangerous place! I'm a bodyguard for the Kings we offer protection for new comers. I don't think you should insult me like that."

The girl roller her eyes and chuckled to herself.

"Insult you? How did I do that? I really am a reptile honest."

"Unless you meant insult your intelligence which I would have done but to be honest. I don't think you have such thing."

"You Bitch! How dare you…" he felt someone grab his arm and turn to see Timmy with a terrified look on his face.

"Don't!" "I know her! She's the Courier's sister! You don't want to piss her off Jimmy!"

The girl overheard their conversation then said.

"That's right." "But do you two morons know what is even more terrifying than the Courier?"

"My grandma"

"Huh?" Both men looked stupefied as they looked at each other trying to get some reassurance that they weren't mad.

The girl now had a wicked smile on her face then proceeded to scream.

"Grandma help!" Next came the sound of a stealth boy powering off and before them stood the biggest and ugliest super mutant they had ever seen.

Both men stood in horror as they watched the mutant looked at them.

"Naughty boys!" Said the mutant

Jim and Timmy screamed in unison and they ran as fast their feet could take them leaving a giggling Veronica.

"Thank you Lily" said Veronica

"Anything for my little munchkin"

Veronica smiled until she noticed a pile of papers freshly printed. Her Brotherhood scribe sense was tingling as she got closer she noticed they were flyers for Gomorrah her favorite casino. Ever since she had arrived on the strip with Pablo the Courier she had expressed her desire to go there, now she had a more convincing argument.

"Come to mama" was all Veronica said as she had Lily help with the groceries and the trio strutted their way back into the strip.

Friday august 18th 10:00 AM

"Fuck my life!" said the man who had just woken up with a massive hangover

His dirty blond hair was all over his face his whole body was in pain. He had been passed out in a bench which explained his back pain. Fortunally for him he still had some whiskey left.

He managed to sit down and proceeded to kick the empty used Jet inhaler that was laying next to him he picked up the whiskey bottle and drank it. The taste of cheap whisky was bad enough but combined with the heat wave, it was beyond disgusting.

He managed to get up and look around. The streets of Primm empty as always, the former Deputy adjusted his exhausted eyes towards the entrance of his town. There was a lone figure entering the town.

Driven by curiosity he walked to greet the lone traveler and perhaps ask for a couple of caps.

As he got closer however he recognized the individual the source of all his troubles. Wearing his dead brother in law's Sheriff duster, wearing a green bandana was the man everybody called the Courier. Beagle wasn't the brightest guy in the world but he knew better that trying something on the Courier, especially after he heard that the Courier had killed all the powder gangers in the NCRCF by himself instead he just decided to mock him.

"Well well look what we got here" he scoffed at the man.

"If it isn't the law bringer" "why are you here?" "Have you come to see how miserable you made my life!" huh?

The Courier just kept walking as if he was deaf and blind.

"Ever since you made Meyers sheriff my life has been hell!" "I have no job, No income, Hell I even pawned my hand gun for some whisky and Jet"

"Hey! I'm talking to you!" "He tried to grab the man's arm but instead his face met the cold steel of a heavily modified nine millimeter"

"Hey man Take it easy ok? He chuckled nervously"

"I didn't mean it ok? Please don't kill me!"

"I'm just a big dumb Beagle please man let me go" he considered breaking down and crying but before he could the Courier pistol whipped him.

"Ow! Goddamnit! Why!"

The Courier had a smirk on his face. It felt as if his brown eyes could peek into Beagle's soul he smelled his weakness but most of all his fear.

"You know if you need a job the Garrets in Freeside are always hiring." He said with an uncaring tone.

"They….they need a deputy in Freeside?" asked beagle who was scared but also curious.

"No they just need an expert on being a pathetic bitch" with that the Courier entered the Mojave express leaving a stunned Beagle who was now at the verge of tears.

Friday August 18th 13:45 PM

"Is it time?" Asked the man

"Yes" answered the other man and they left.

Friday August 18th 17:30 PM

Rex the cyber dog began barking at the elevator door. With that Veronica ran to the hall picked up an issue of Grognak the barbarian that was laying on the floor. She sat in a chair overlooking the elevator crossed her legs and pretended to be casually reading the comic book.

She heard the elevator door open but kept her cool the plan had to be executed perfectly.

Just as planned the Courier stepped out with a smile on his face. She noticed that he entered with ED-E the Enclave robot she first met him with.

"Hey Veronica! I see you didn't burn the suite down congratulations!" He said with a silly grin.

Veronica just responded by giving him the finger.

He chuckled and said "That's my girl"

Veronica beamed but noticed something strange. The smell of cigarettes, that was strange since neither she or Pablo smoked, they both always were on the lookout for packs of cigarettes since they were worth quite a lot of caps, especially in the 188 Trading post.

"Veronica there's someone I want you to meet" said Pablo as a taller older man walked out of the elevator. The man was wearing military boots and pants along with a white t-shirt, the sweat from their journey into the strip allowed Veronica to get a better view of the man's muscles.

Suddenly she felt hot, confused, and terrified all at the same time. This marking the first time in her life she ever felt attraction towards the opposite sex.

"Veronica this is Craig Boone he helped me out a couple of times before I met you".

"Boone this is Veronica" "she's cool"

Just as she was about to greet him, her smile turned into a frown, her tiny crush long gone; As she noticed the red beret on his head.

When she was younger she remembered arguing with father Elijah when a cocky young paladin came running hollering victory as he waved a red beret as proof of a successful kill.

She didn't know then what the red beret meant, all she knew was that it was NCR.

"You should have told me she was Brotherhood" said Boone who was frowning at Pablo.

"Oh get over yourself Boone!" Veronica is a great asset to the team. Stop acting like you're still an NCR grunt.

Boone scoffed then said; "I just don't want someone shooting me in the back."

"She wouldn't do that. Most likely she'll just punch your teeth in" said Pablo who entered the kitchen.

Boone and Veronica continued to stare at each other, confused and unsure what to do.

"Hey veronica! Did you buy the groceries?" Asked Pablo from inside the kitchen.

"Yeah! most of them are on the counter the rest are on the fridge" said Veronica who continued to give Boone an uncomfortable glare.

Pablo walked out of the kitchen with a sour look on his face.

"Tell me you did not just spend all the caps I gave you in junk food".

"It's not junk food it's awesome food!" Said Veronica who turned towards Pablo and did her best to unleash her puppy eyes.

Pablo just sighed giving in to Veronica's puppy eyes.

"Fine but what are me and Boone supposed to eat? Huh?"

"Make a noodle soup; aren't you the best Ramen cook in the wasteland today?" Asked Veronica appealing to the Courier's ego.

"Damn right I am, now both of you wash your hands dinner will be ready in fifteen minutes"; with that Pablo entered the kitchen again.

Boone looked at Veronica who had a winning smile on her face and asked.

"He is joking right? He doesn't expect me to wash my hands does he?"

"You better wash your hands Boone" said Veronica who walked towards the bath room". Boone reluctantly followed her.

Friday August 18th 18:00 PM

Veronica could only define the dinner they just had as "good times" the soup was good but the best part was when Lily showed up and the look on Boone's face as he fell off his chair at the sight of the super mutant.

Veronica was washing the dishes counting down just how long it would take for Pablo to notice her little prank.

It didn't take long.

"Veronica!"

She smiled to herself and skipped into Pablo' room where he stood with a horrified look on his face.

"What the hell did you do to my room?" He pointed towards the master bedroom. The room had been vandalized by the scribe; Gomorrah flyers glued to the walls everywhere. His bed had a sleeping Rex among dozens of flyers.

Quite angry Pablo turned towards Veronica and shouted

"Clean it up! Now!"

"No!"

"No? You did this!"

"Not until you meet my demands!" Yelled Veronica

"Demands? What are you talking about?"

"You are taking me to Gomorrah tonight" said Veronica who had a serious look on her face

"Gomorrah? You vandalized my room just because you want to go to a brothel?" "Veronica we don't have time. Tomorrow we are coming down on that Benny bastard like the wrath of the gods! We don't have time, perhaps afterwards."

"No I want to go tonight. You promised me we would go to Gomorrah the day we entered the strip, no more stalling! I want to go tonight"; said Veronica as she crossed her arms and huffed.

"I got at least a hundred flyers left. If you don't meet my demands I'll fill the rest of the suite with them."

Pablo tried to argue but he realized it was hopeless.

"Fine!" Veronica squealed and hugged Pablo then ran off into his room and began cleaning the mess she made.

"I'm going to take a bath I expect all this crap gone by the time I'm back" said Pablo as he left muttering all kinds of curses under his breath.

Friday August 18th 19:00 PM

Pablo was wearing his Mercenary cruiser outfit along with his beloved red t-shirt as he began adjusting his bandana out of the corner of his eye he spotted Veronica wearing a much cleaner gray robe that the brown she usually wore.

"Ready to go?" He asked

"Yes we have some fun and then we whack this Benny guy. I can't wait"

"Let's go then." Veronica beamed and skipped towards the elevator followed by Boone and Pablo.


	3. RingaDingDing

Ring-a-Ding-Ding!

Rick had seen better days. Back when he was younger he had been known for being a crack shot and quite the heart breaker, nowadays he was lucky if people actually called him by his name instead of "Greeter guy" to top it all off it was a really slow day and he was jonesing badly.

To make things worse he felt like he was burning up, he looked up at the fan at the entrance of Gomorrah and wondered who to blame; the heat or the drugs? The biggest mystery of it all was. How could this casino operate with a staff full of junkies? Like a well-oiled machine apparently; he had to admire Nero that bastard was getting richer by the day while his employees were killing themselves on jet.

Normally he didn't care how he got his next fix but things were getting desperate since Cachino had refused to pay him, reminding him that it was not "Payday" yet.

He sighed in defeat and walked towards Sandy. Sandy was the receptionist in Gomorrah apart from the fact that she looked more like a man than a woman she was alright; she always knew what the word on the street was and who to blame.

Sandy saw Rick walking towards her, thinking quickly she fixed her hair and smiled to herself.

"Hey Sandy" said Rick as he tried his best to smile.

"Hey Rick what can I do for you?" she asked.

"Well Sandy i was wondering if you had any medicine left".

"As a matter of fact I do have two inhalers left. The question is what are you willing to do to get them?"

Rick bit his lip and wished he had a knife to stab that bitch with. But he knew if he wanted to score tonight he had to do what that opportunistic wretch wanted.

"What do you have in mind?" He asked and hoped it didn't involve Rick wearing make up again.

"Come see me when your shift ends and we can have some fun". "But for now stick to looking pretty, greeter guy".

With that Rick went back to his post grumbling profanities when the doors opened; Rick was used to see a single tourist or a couple of NCR grunts but instead he had two heavily armed mercenaries and a young girl who looked like she shopped for clothes in a scrap yard.

"Hey! No one but Omertas are allowed to carry weapons inside the casino check your weapons with me".

_"That was a mistake, a huge fucking mistake!_" thought Rick as he felt the temperature of the room dwindle as the trio glared at him, he felt any second now he would be riddled with bullets.

Instead a voice came from behind him and said.

"You have to forgive my friend he has been having a bad day. What he is trying to say is that for security reasons we need you turn in your weapons gentlemen… and lady".

It was Johnny a blonde kid around seventeen years old He covered the night shift although naïve: he seemed to be a nice person, too nice for a place like Gomorrah.

The leader of the group a young man that wore a green bandana stared at Johnny for a moment sizing him up.

Rick was scared for the kid: he himself was a dirty womanizing piece of shit and proud of it. But he didn't want Johnny to die for one of his fuck ups.

"Fine" said the leader and the rest of the group although hesitant followed the leader.

"Thank you. Sir" said Johnny who was sweating bullets.

"Please place your weapons here. I will keep them safe."

Rick and Johnny looked in horror to see just how many weapons the trio was carrying with them. There was enough to outfit two squadrons.

"Hey Tino!" yelled Johnny.

In walked in a tiny Mexican man with a big black mustache.

"Yes Johnny?"

"Do me a favor and please show this good people where they want to go".

"Sure kid".

"Please follow me" said Tino as he motioned the trio to follow him.

Before anyone could do anything the leader of the group grabbed Johnny's tie and pulled him towards him. The kid was beyond terrified as he looked into the stranger's eyes.

"If anything happens to my guns you'll be the first to be skinned alive". Said the man with the bandana. Suddenly letting go of Johnny causing him to fall face first to the floor. The stranger's friends nodded in approval and the trio left following Tino.

Rick walked up to Johnny to offer him a hand and the kid took it. Feeling Rick's strong grip Johnny quickly rose to his feet, as he looked at Rick this close he could see the bag under his eyes and the sweat dripping from his face he wanted to say something but he knew Rick would cuss him out or worse so he kept his mouth shut.

"Fucking weirdos right?" Asked Rick trying to make the kid feel better.

"You got that right" said Johnny wishing he had stayed at home today.

"This is the second time today I'm threatened by some random freak". "This morning that snake in the brown suit left Nero's room and walked over to me and asked me if I heard any rumors about someone entering the Lucky 38".

"That's impossible no one has set foot in that place in two hundred years!" replied Johnny

"Exactly that's what I said to him; then he just stared at me like a lizard and he literary hissed at me and left. I'm telling you kid. The strip is about to be overrun by freaks".

Then Rick looked at Johnny and did his best.

"Thanks kid without you I would have become a pin cushion riddled with bullets".

Johnny smiled and tried to fix his hair, and tried his best to hide the piss stain on his pants he had just made.

"No worries Rick, that's what friends are for right?" As he smiled towards the older man.

Rick scoffed loudly "Friends? No we are not friends Johnny but thanks anyway". With that Rick left Johnny and walked over to Sandy jonesing for jet, and hoped the woman would have enough decency not to make him wear that stupid dress again. At least not today.

* * *

><p>Tino escorted the trio through the game room to the Brimstone club where he sat them close to one of the dancers, as he left he made a mental note to try to figure out who were these guys.<p>

Veronica was the first one to grab a seat. Making sure she had the best view of the gorgeous brunette who was on stage shaking her hips, next came Boone who seemed uncomfortable as usual, Pablo the Courier was the last to sit since he had been busy trying to catch one of the waitress's attention, he was especially happy when he saw that it the waitress was a quite attractive young black girl with short hair.

"Hi sugar my name is Dixie what can I get for you and your friends?" Asked the waitress as she surveyed the trio with a polite smile, her eyes lingered on Boone for a little too long.

Pablo smiled and gave a slight nod at Boone who seemed embarrassed with all the attention. Taking charge once again the Courier smiled towards the girl and decided it was time for some information.

"Pleased to meet you Dixie I'm Pablo this is Boone and Veronica and since this is our first time visiting this fine establishment we could definitely use some directions along with some cold beers".

"Well sugar this lovely place here is called club Brimstone, you saw the gambling room as you came on your way here, we also have the Zoara club upstairs; which is our VIP section and finally we have the courtyard where you can find some "company" "to enjoy the rest of the night".

"As for the beers sugar, I'll go get them for you right now". Said Dixie as she began walking towards the bartender; she was stopped by Boone.

"No way. I want a bottle of whiskey" said Boone as he looked towards Dixie; who gave a weak smile along with a nod and proceeded to walk towards the bar. Silence fell over the trio with only the faint sound of music. Boone crossed his arms and looked grim as usual while Veronica was bewitched by the dancers swaying hips, Pablo however was grinning at Boone and decided to tease him a bit.

"Geez Boone, I had no idea you were such a ladies' man. I'm tempted to ask Dixie to accompany us in our merry drinking, I'm sure her boss won't mind since it's not a busy night".

Boone glared at the courier trying to intimidate him enough to drop the subject. Instead Pablo gave Boone a Chesire grin. Boone was surprised the younger male had all his teeth; Nothing a good right hook couldn't fix. Before he could try anything else he noticed Dixie carrying a tray with all the booze they ordered; Boone decided to drop the subject and proceeded to admire the ceiling.

"Here you go sugar. If you need anything just holler alright?" With that Dixie walked over another table leaving the group to their drinking. Boone proceeded to grab the whiskey bottle and fill three shot glasses sending one to Pablo and another to Veronica. Pablo smiled and tapped Veronica in the shoulder who was busy staring at the dancer reluctantly she turned her attention towards the shot.

"On the count of three" said Boone and the trio proceeded to grab their shot glasses and donned their shots. Boone had a pleased smile as he felt the whiskey warm his body but then he noticed Pablo and Veronica chocking on their drinks; with a satisfying grin he proceeded to pour himself another shot while his companions retreated to their beers.

Pablo took a sip of his beer then sighed heavily and gazed at Boone with a serious look on his face deciding now was the best time to plan their mission.

"Boone let's go over the plan shall we?" The former First Recon sniper nodded and placed his hands together and proceeded to explain the plan of attack for tomorrow. Meanwhile Veronica was ignoring the two men and found herself enraptured by the curves of the beautiful dancer in front of her. The dancer started to gyrate her hips in a sensual rhythm looking towards Veronica and giving her a wink. Blushing madly; she decided to do something about it, all of the sudden Veronica felt compelled to climb into the stage and try to get to know that girl, when she was stopped by Pablo who gave her a disapproving look.

"We are planning our attack plan for tomorrow Vero". "You can do your thing afterwards right now we need to focus". The Courier ignored the glare that Veronica was brandishing and began indicating explaining his plan with beer bottles and shot glasses.

* * *

><p>Above them in the VIP section known as the Zaora club, stood Vulpes Inculta wearing his incognito outfit. Overcome with rage; he gritted his teeth and gripped the metal bar so hard his knuckled were turning white. Restraining himself he leaned over and paid a closer view towards the profligates; It was a miscalculation on his part to let that kid go. He wanted the kid to spread the word of the massacre in Nipton, and he did just that but that wasn't the end of it. Now there he was a month later: calling himself the Courier, and not only the head of a small group; but the only man to ever survive three Legion assassination attempts.<p>

The head of the Frumentarii began to play several scenarios inside his head where he murdered the kid and his entourage. With a smile he began to caress his silenced 22 caliber pistol, but then he remembered what Alerio said; if this kid really did entered the Luck 38 then Caesar would have plans for him.

He walked back inside his room and pulled out a small CV radio he kept with himself to make contact with other members of the Legion.

"Picus this is Vulpes do you read me?"

"Vulpes? This is a dangerous time to contact me. Wait until midnight".

"This can't wait I have urgent news for our father, said Vulpes".

* * *

><p>Pablo had finished detailing the plan for storming the casino when he noticed a strange painting. It had twelve men and a woman they wore strange clothes that looked more like dresses than anything else.<p>

Veronica noticed Pablo observing a painting.

"So you I take it you like the last supper?" asked Veronica.

"Veronica we just ate. I'm not hungry and why are you calling it the last?" "Unless you put poison in it of course". Answered the Courier giving her a confused look.

"No you idiot, I'm talking about the painting. It's called the last supper".

"Oh".

"Why is it called the last supper?" asked the Courier. Veronica just answered with a small shrug.

"Beats me" she said. "I saw that painting in this old book I got from father Elijah that had all the best artwork from pre-war times". "The guy who drew it was called Da Vinci. It was about some guy called Jesus and his Christianity".

"What the hell is that? Was that some kind of weapon?" Asked Boone, who joined on looking at the painting.

"Who knows; Father Elijah said that it was quite big. But like everything else; it died when the bombs fell".

"I think the painting kicks ass, we should steal it". Said Pablo with a mischievous grin.

"Are you crazy Pablo? You know sometimes I think you are looking for excuses to get shot at". Said Veronica punching the Courier in the shoulder.

"Alright Vero you are probably right; we should at least get a picture taken just like that".

"Yeah I think it we would look bad ass except we are only six and they are thirteen".

"We could always add more people to the team" said Pablo.

"Yeah! I want a leggy brunette and a butler with a British accent that does everything I tell him" beamed Veronica.

"We'll see kiddo" said Pablo as he took a sip of his beer bottle and with a satisfied smile he looked at Veronica.

"You know this wasn't a bad idea after all Vero. I'm glad we came here". Said Pablo as he gently patted the scribe in the back with a pleased smile.

"Like always people fail to recognize my genius, but it's alright Pablo. There's hope for you yet" said Veronica.

"Ha! Sure whatever you say kiddo".

"Anyways how about we get going? I bet the courtyard is buzzing with excitement and can't wait to meet us" said Veronica with a smile.

"Alright" said Pablo and he looked on Boone's direction.

"You coming Boone?"

As if on cue the sniper sat back on his chair and proceeded to pour himself a shot shaking his head.

"Alright man, suit yourself. Here is fifty caps; if I were you I would finish my drink and then I would find Dixie and have some fun with her".

Boone just glared at the Courier. Knowing that trying to persuade Boone was completely futile the Courier just nodded at Veronica and left for the courtyard leaving the man to his whiskey.

* * *

><p>The Courtyard in Gomorrah's was a very lively place: surrounded by plants and exotic music unlike the rest of Gomorrah where most of the casino didn't have many people, the courtyard looked like a giant party.<p>

Pablo the Courier grinned at the scenery; his mind wandering freely picturing future escapades and adventures in this place. His smile turned into a frown when he looked at Veronica who looked grim.

"Something wrong Vero?" Asked the Courier concerned for the scribe.

Veronica answered with a weak smile.

"I'm fine…. It's just ….. I'm kind of Nervous Pablo do you think they'll like me?"

The courier just smiled and placed his hand on veronica's shoulder.

"They're hookers Vero they don't have to like you".

"Asshole….."

"Ha-ha I'm joking kiddo relax. There's nothing to worry about; you are a great girl I'm sure they'll be fighting each other for a chance to be with you".

"You think so? I hope so, that would give me great bragging rights next time I'm with the Brotherhood". Pablo noticed that while Veronica was hiding something so he decided to be blunt about it and decided to ask.

"You are not a virgin are you?" Veronica looked taken back by that question and recovered slowly.

"Is that what is bothering you Vero?"

"No! it's not that. I'm not a virgin; it's just that... Christine was the only girl I've ever been with".

"Christine huh? That's her name? Well I'm sure things are going to be alright". "Now how about we go find you a girl?"

Veronica nodded and Pablo started to walk towards the crowds when he was stopped by Veronica.

"Hey Pablo".

"Yes?"

"Thanks. You are a great fake big brother".

"Pablo proceeded to smile and answered with a cocky bow".

"I aim to please".

"You still owe me a fucking dress so don't think you're off the hook just yet….." said Veronica with a smile.

"Wouldn't dream of it Kiddo now let's go find you a girl" and the duo began to walk towards the party.

* * *

><p>After sending Veronica with a cute short haired brunette, Pablo walked up some stairs into a hallway that also acted as a balcony and began to survey the party and try to decide which girl he wanted. At the same time he couldn't help to feel like he was being watched by someone. All the vegetation in the courtyard didn't help either, it reminded him of a jungle, he remembered being a kid and reading a pre-war book about jungles and this giant cat called a Lion and he was the king of the jungle.<p>

The thoughts of a big predator such as a Lion terrified him, he was glad that he didn't live in a place nowhere near a jungle, suddenly he felt like he was being watched again by some sort of predator. He slowly turned around only to find a quite attractive brunette wearing a ponytail and lingerie.

"Well, what do we have here huh?" "Let me guess. You've heard about the mistress that makes all of your fantasies come true".

"So you've followed the call of your desires….. all the way to the arms of Joana. Moi; now that you found me". "I wonder do you have what It takes?".

Pablo smiled he was glad it wasn't some sort of assassin so crossed his arms and leaned back against the railing.

"I always have what it takes, beautiful".

"Confident I like that. So what do you want to with what you got?"

"Ha! I think the better question is what are you going to do with it?" Said Pablo as he grinned at Joana.

"Oh my". "Aren't you something else? I guess you'll have to see for yourself what I can do huh?" "Consider it on the house honey".

"Now that's more like it gorgeous, lead the way" said Pablo as he looked at the beautiful brunette lead him to her room. Watching those swaying hips he knew this was a great upgrade from Beatrix the Ghoul.

* * *

><p>Pablo the Courier woke up with a smile on his face. Looking at the naked frame of the woman still sleeping beside him, he laid back and looked at the ceiling and sighed happily.<p>

_"I could get used to this"_ he thought and he began to day dream becoming a regular, when he was interrupted by a voice in his head.

"_You can't get used to it. She's a hooker it's her job to make you feel good"._

_"Shut up"_.

_"Great now you are talking to yourself_ " said the voice.

This made the Courier visibly wince and he went to check the time; the light on his pip-boy said 7:00 AM; Getting up slowly making sure not to startle the sleeping beauty beside him. He began to put on his clothes. Tying up his green bandana he took one last look at the naked frame of Joana. He sighed and left.

The first thing he saw as he stepped out of Joana's room was Veronica who was sitting by herself on some stairs hugging her knees, humming a song she probably heard on the radio.

She quickly noticed the Courier and got up and walked up to him.

"Hey Veronica". "I didn't expect you to get up this early, how was it?"

Veronica smiled and did a small victory dance.

"That good huh? Well I'm very happy for you, now at least you won't be drooling at the sight of any good looking chick we come across".

"I don't know about that" said veronica as she giggled; "I can't wait until we come back to visit this place".

"Good" said the Courier; "now let's go find Boone so we can get to me killing Benny".

"Sure let's go".

It didn't take the duo that long to find Boone as soon as they left courtyard they saw Boone passed out on their table with three empty whiskey bottles next to him.

Pablo walked up to Boone and gently kicked him, this brought Boone back to life and he glared at the Courier.

"Get up Boone. It's time, we need to go".

"Fine" was all could Boone say as he was being attacked by a pounding head ache. He slowly got up and proceeded to follow Pablo and Veronica.

After they got their weapons back, the trio left Gomorrah where the bright New Vegas morning sun was waiting for them. Boone grunted the morning light wasn't a good combination with his hang over, so he pulled out his sunglasses.

Pablo the Courier looked at Boone and decided he wasn't going to let Boone take all the "Bad ass dude look" so he took his own black aviator sunglasses and put them on. Veronica looked at both men and frowned.

"Where are my sunglasses? I want to look bad ass too!" She cried and unleashed her puppy eyes. Pablo just shook his head and pulled out his spare sunglasses; with a pleased smile Veronica wasted little time and wore them.

"Alright now that we all look bad ass guys, let's go. Benny isn't going to kill himself you know? Come on!"

And so the trio headed towards the tops to finish Pablo's tale of revenge once and for all.

* * *

><p>The first thing Pablo noticed about the tops was that it was packed with people gambling and laughing and having a good time. He made a mental note to come back and hang out once this whole Benny drama was over.<p>

Yet again the trio was asked to surrender their weapons when entering a casino but this time they saw it coming.

Pablo kept a silenced 22 caliber pistol the same with Boone and Veronica snuck inside a switchblade; the trio's best option was to take mister House's advice and seek out a man called Swank and try to convince him to join killing Benny.

It didn't go as planned. However they got their weapons back and access to Benny's suite. Changing the plan Pablo and Veronica would search Benny's suite for proof that Benny was guilty, while Boone tracked Benny who had been sent to the lobby by Swank.

The search seemed futile until Veronica decided to use the restroom and opened the wrong door that led to a very claustrophobic hallway: Pablo followed that road and was greeted by a lone Securytron that looked different than any he had seen before; unlike Victor this "yes man" seemed very friendly and forthcoming about information.

Giving Pablo all the evidence he needed plus answers for all the questions he had for Benny, Yes man tried to convince Pablo to take cover the strip but he dismissed him and left the securytron alone where he found him. While waiting for Veronica to finish he noticed that Benny had been smoking and drinking in his own mini bar. Knowing he would return to that spot he left a gift for Benny.

Returning to Swank the Courier told him about Benny's plans, which completely freaked out Swank. Finally agreeing to have Benny killed; Swank called back all employees and proceeded to give the news of a change in management. Meanwhile Pablo and Veronica were on the elevator. Once again heading to the thirteenth floor to finally put Benny down.

Veronica looked at Pablo who seemed very calmed leaning against the wall with his eyes closed and smiling to himself.

So…. Pablo care to tell me why are you so relaxed? Benny isn't dead just yet. Why are you acting like you won the lottery? Asked Veronica confused.

I haven't won…. Not yet anyway just wait.

Wait? Wait for what?

Confused Veronica just shook her head and the door opened as they reached the thirteen floor. Suddenly they heard a loud bang and the floor shook and with a smile Pablo stepped out and strutted into Benny's suite to see his handy work.

Pablo pulled out his caravan shotgun as soon as he got to the threshold of the now beat up door. He was glad the mine he placed under Benny's seat, caused an acceptable amount of damage.

The mini bar had been reduced to black splinters full of holes caused by the pellets from the mine. Same could be said about the white couch at the opposite side. Finally Pablo was able to find traces of blood; around the couch and the floor following the trail he found what was left of Benny's legs.

Amongst the blood soaked pile of gore he could make out a thigh whether it was his left or right thigh didn't matter. What concerned Pablo was just where in the blue hell was the rest of Benny? Veronica was quiet the entire time. All that blood made Veronica lightheaded, which was stupid since she herself had seen and did her share of killing.

Her favorite kill so far had been this Legion Centurion who was all caught up trying to coordinate an ambush on Pablo that he had not seen her sneak behind him and with a gentle tap on the shoulder which caused him to turn around; she hit him so hard that his head literary popped off; Sending a small splash of warm blood straight into veronica's face. This of course caught the Courier's attention: after the fight calling it a "money shot" which made Veronica pinch his arm with her power first. The scream he let out brought her great satisfaction.

The sound of footsteps brought Veronica back from her day dreaming; she made a signal to Pablo and got her power fist ready.

Five of Benny's bodyguards were rushing into the room brandishing 9mm pistols. They aimed their guns at the two intruders and shouted.

"Freeze! Who are you and where is Benny?" ordered one of them while the rest just aimed their guns at them.

"Well this piece of leg here is part of Benny, I don't know about the rest though" said Pablo as he picked up the human thigh and threw it towards the bodyguards. All of the men had simultaneously triggered their gag reflex; their faces a mix between horror and disgust.

From the shadows Boone pulled out his machete and grabbed the closest chairman he could find grabbing the man's chin and pulling it back, next he put his blade close to the man's throat. The rest of the chairmen had little time to react as they saw a very strange looking dog enter the suite. The dog growled and looked like it was making up its mind about which one of them it was going to attack first.

As if things couldn't get any worse for the bodyguard of the now defunct Benny they heard the strange noise of a stealth boy powering off and they saw an incredibly ugly super mutant materialize behind them.

"I think now it would be a good time to consider surrendering, before me and my friends tear you to pieces" said Pablo the Courier as he lowered his shot gun and proceeded to look for what was left of Benny.

The chairmen dropped their hand guns and proceeded to leave the room with their heads down and their tail between their legs. Veronica grinned in satisfaction then looked to Boone who began to look for Benny as well.

Boone walked towards what was left of the mini bar and found a pool of blood that seemed to have a darker color to it.

"Hey Pablo" said Boone

"Yeah? What's wrong Boone?"

"I found Benny".

The Courier walked towards where Boone was and saw the remains of Benny; aside for a missing right arm and a blood soaked corpse the torso of Benny seemed to be in good shape even his cocky haircut was intact.

Pablo knelt down and proceeded to pick Benny's pockets and with a smile on his face he pulled out the platinum chip. He was finally holding the object that had gotten him shot in the head; strangely as much as he hated it the damn chip, a part of him was glad that he took that job that fateful day.

After all if he hadn't. He would still be a wanderer with no caps and no home. Despite the almost dying part, now he had a suite in the Lucky 38 and had made a name for himself and his crew. He played with the chip until something shiny caught his eye; as he got closer he saw that it was a 9mm hand gun with chrome and Ivory decorations. The same gun he had been shot in the head with.

He began playing with the gun, then looking through the sights and then he walked up to Benny's body, he chambered a round aimed the gun and shot the corpse in the head. Then the Courier looked at Benny and spoke.

"I believe I owed you a bullet in the head Benny" said Pablo as he grabbed his old modified pistol and shelved it on his back pack and holstered the new pistol, then he turned around to see his companions all looking at him strangely; Pablo the Courier shrugged and spoke.

"Is anybody else hungry? I'm starving" all nodded and got into the elevator. After a brief talk with Swank the Courier and his companions entered the Tops buffet and proceeded to pig out. Rex happily ate a stake, while Boone ate his food quietly in a corner, Veronica whoever was in front of a jukebox dancing. Pablo was eating his noodles while at the same time listening to Lily.

"Now pumpkin after seeing Benny die today, I hope you realize that crime doesn't pay" said Lily as she wagged her giant finger at the Courier who nodded at her advice.

A young waiter came with two plates and placed them on the Courier's table. Confused Pablo looked at the dish and asked the waiter.

"Excuse me I didn't order this".

"I did" said Veronica with a smile as she approached the table and sat down and began devouring the dish. Pablo's interest peaked with the speed in which Veronica was devouring her dish.

"Man I love ice cream".

"That's ice cream?" said Pablo who looked in wonder at the illusive dish.

"Can I try some?" Asked Pablo.

"No way in hell" said Veronica as she kept devouring her ice cream.

* * *

><p>Veronica's victory was short lived; as soon they were about the leave the tops. Veronica was attacked by head ache that she called "brain freeze", Pablo decided to skip any stops and just head straight home when they were stopped by a strange looking man in a brown suit. The man didn't look like much but when he spoke it brought memories from Nipton.<p>

"The eyes of the mighty Caesar are upon you. He admires your accomplishments, and bestows upon you the exceptional gift of his mark".

"Any crimes that you may have perpetrated against the Legion are….." said the head of the Frumentarii when he was rudely interrupted by Veronica.

"Shut the fuck up okay! I have a terrible head ache and I feel like death. I want to go back to the Lucky 38 as soon as possible not listen to Legion nonsense" said Veronica whom held her hand over her forehead.

"Guess this is my cue to start filling this guy full of holes" said Boone as he pulled out his rifle, but was stopped by Pablo who extended his arm towards Boone.

"Don't".

"What! Why!"

"I want to hear what he has to say" said the Courier as he glimpsed briefly at Boone: the anger on his face was quite visible and very contradictory to his usual taciturn demeanor. Veronica who was still holding her head noticed this and decided to have some fun at Boone's expense.

"This head ache is killing me I can't even concentrate enough to walk". "Boone why don't you use your big strong arms for something useful for a change; and pick me up" said Veronica with a grin on her face.

"Pablo gave Veronica a look of amusement then he grinned at Boone.

"Yeah Boone why don't you help Veronica out?" "She's already a handful when she's not grumpy. Just imagine how annoying she's going to be if she doesn't get some rest".

"Hey! I'm not a handful!" Whined Veronica.

"See? Now Boone please just pick up Veronica and take her back to home base".

"You can't be serious" glared Boone.

"I'm afraid I am being serious my friend, now please take her home while I deal with this guy".

Boone lost count of how many times he twitched. Muttering curses under his breath Boone he picked up Veronica in his arms who let out a happy yelp and left being followed by Lily.

The only company Pablo had left was Rex who seemed happy just to be outside. The Courier made a mental note to take him with him on his next adventure.

"So, now that we are alone Ignorant Fox what does your Boss want with me?" Asked Pablo looking at Vulpes Inculta in the eyes trying his best to sound intimidating.

"What did you call me?" growled Vulpes.

"Ignorant Fox that's what your name means in Latin" said Pablo.

"I see…. What a degenerate such as yourself thinks of my name is irrelevant". "What matters here is that you have gained my master's attention and he wishes to see you in his camp in Fortification hill at once" said Vulpes.

"Thanks for the kind words Fox but I don't swing that way".

"You are a fool, only a fool would take being called a degenerate a compliment". "Profligates like you only belong in a cross. I should have killed you when I had the chance fool".

"And I should have been a wandering minstrel, but you know we can't always get what we want out life right?" The Courier grinned in satisfaction.

"I see now that trying to have a civilized conversation with you is fruitless, before I leave: take this; this is the mark of Caesar. It will allow you to travel safely through our lands" said Vulpes Inculta as he nodded and left in silence.

Pablo just shrugged his shoulders then proceeded to head back to the Lucky 38 with Rex in tow.

The next morning Pablo the Courier got up early cooked and ate breakfast, then took a bath and returned to his room and put on his sheriff duster along with some old jeans along with a black shirt. As he began to leave his room he saw Veronica leaning against the doorway.

"Your majesty you are awake at last!" said Pablo.

"Ha-ha very funny Pablo, you should have warned me not to eat that much ice cream" frowned Veronica.

"How was I supposed to know? I've never had ice cream my entire life".

"Whatever. Where are you going?"

"I'm heading back south to see if I can recruit some new people for our team".

"Can I come?" Said Veronica once again using her puppy eyes.

"No sorry, it's just going to be me and Rex this time. Now please Vero try not kill Boone okay?" With that Pablo left in the elevator on his way to recruit new blood.

"Fine but he better take me along next time" growled Veronica then she crossed her arms and huffed then walked back to the kitchen and began to plot a new prank on Boone who was sitting on the table eating breakfast. Sneaking up behind him Veronica carefully applied super glue to the chair; just enough to make impossible to escape and then she left quickly. Ten minutes later Boone screamed so loud that Mister House sent Victor to investigate what had just happened.


	4. Cowgirl in the sand

Cowgirl in the Sand

Pablo the Courier didn't like being late, to him punctuality had always been one of his biggest trademarks. During his time as a Courier he would show up on time or sometimes early for deliveries. His employers always tended to give him bonuses thanks to the great word of mouth.

His first and last job with the Mojave Express of course marked the end of Pablo's career as a Courier. But now ever since the day he awoke that fateful day in Goodsprings people reacted to him differently; ignoring completely the fact that he had a name and instead just called him "Courier."

Now more than ever he felt uncomfortable as ever as he exited the strip trying not to lock eyes with the crowd of onlookers that wanted to get a good look at _the man who killed Benny. _Pablo the Courier felt relieved as the gates of New Vegas closed behind him and he entered Freeside.

He was two hours late. He would not make to the Mojave Outpost by dusk as he planned. Gritting his teeth he quickened his pace and headed to Mick & Ralphs. There he bought some beef jerky for himself and Rex who happily wagged his tail before enjoying his food, as he exited the building he came across one of the residents of Freeside; a cute girl who's idea of using make up was stuffing as much dirt in her face as possible.

"They say you even help rats across the street" said the young girl with a smile.

This made the Courier chuckle as he watched the girl walk into the store. His eyes lingered on her backside a few more seconds than appropriate, with a Cheshire grin he left Freeside, his thoughts were focused on the reason why he was late.

After saying goodbye to Veronica Pablo the Courier stepped out of the Lucky 38 and decided to meet the neighbors. First he stopped by the NCR embassy and talked with Crocker who tried to sell him the idea of patriotism and duty to the NCR.

The Courier then left the embassy telling Crocker he would think about it. Then he walked across the street into Michael Angelo's where he met Sheldon a very introverted man who gave him a camera and asked him to take pictures of different landmarks. But the best thing about Sheldon was living next to him; His sister Sarah Weintraub.

As he entered Vault 21 the Courier was greeted by a beautiful blonde girl, who was the proprietress of the vault now turned hotel and offered him a room, and a tour.

"My vault runs deep and wide! It's full of corridors and rooms that go far" said Sarah as she began her tour of the Vault.

"Now pay attention. Because it's easy for people to get lost in here" said Sarah as she proceeded with the tour, Pablo the Courier however wasn't paying attention; his eyes were fixed on Sarah's swaying hips as she walked and he did not pay much attention to his surroundings.

He immediately regretted it as predicted by Sarah he got lost. Two hours later after roaming all over the vault he finally found the entrance and a giggling Sarah Weintraub to greet him.

"Ha-Ha I told you to pay attention" said Sarah as she tilted her head and smiled.

The Courier then talked with Sarah about finding vault suits for her in exchange of caps, after that the Courier left the strip towards Freeside.

Soon after leaving Freeside Pablo the Courier headed to find the Crimson caravan company; there he saw Ringo the merchant he helped back in Goodsprings. Ringo told Pablo about Alice Mclafferty. The current company manager and said that she had well-paying jobs and was looking for people.

Alice Mclafferty gave Pablo a series of tasks he needed to accomplish one of them was to convince the same person he was going to meet Rose of Sharon Cassidy to sell her caravan business to her. Pablo the Courier thought it was ironic how Cass had suggested that he should look for work in the Crimson caravan company now he had to convince her to give up hers.

* * *

><p>Four hours later around nine he made it to Goodsprings. The town had not changed since his last visit the only thing that stood out was the amount of flies that flew around Joe Cobb's head in the entrance of Goodsprings.<p>

After the battle of Goodsprings the settlers piled up all the dead powder gangers and buried them in a ditch except for Joe Cobb. He became Pablo's toy as he cut off his head with a machete and fed the rest of his body to the coyotes; as a warning for anyone looking to start trouble Pablo took Joe Cobb's head and nailed it to the welcome to Goodsprings sign.

The town looked deserted except for the big-horners and the light that came from Chet's store and the Prospector saloon "_it_ _was good to be back"_ with a smile on his face the Courier entered the saloon.

He was greeted by Cheyenne the dog who practically darted across the room to get a look at Rex, they started sniffing each others butts immediately, out of the corner of his eye he spotted Sunny Smiles playing with the jukebox she nodded at the Courier as he made his way to the bar.

"Well look who do we have here? Our savior and protector has come to visit us" said Trudy with a smile.

"Thanks Trudy I'll have a beer and some noodles" said the Courier as he sat down in a stool and began to survey the crowd: easy Pete was passed out on the counter drooling and mumbling about some treasure while a pair of new settlers wearing cowboy hats were whispering to each other.

Pablo the Courier tensed up eyeing the two settlers his right hand ran through his pistol holster where he kept Maria his new sidearm. He was about to begin to decide whether those two new settlers were going to be trouble when he saw Sunny Smiles sitting next to him with a smile on her face.

"It looks like our dogs are getting to know each other" said Sunny ash she did a hand signal at Trudy who gave her a beer.

"Yeah Rex is very friendly with most people, speaking of which where is he?" asked the Courier.

"Oh he and Cheyenne are out back humping each other" said Sunny as she took a sip of her beer.

"Oh? Well at least someone is having a good time" said the Courier with a wolfish grin, this made Sunny look at her beer bottle while biting her lower lip.

"Hey Pablo did you ever get around to visit the New Vegas strip?" asked Trudy while she cleaned a jug with a cloth.

"Yeah as a matter of fact Trudy I just came from there."

"Did you get to meet Mister New Vegas?" "He is such a gentleman; I hope I get to meet him when I travel to the strip on my next vacation"

Pablo the Courier took a sip of his beer and smiled.

"You're coming to New Vegas for your next vacation?"

"Yep I'm fixing to do some gambling and meet that hunk of a man Mister New Vegas" The Courier smiled while Sunny Smiles slowly shook her head.

"Well Trudy if you do come to New Vegas stay in Vault 21: Sarah Weintraub a friend of mine is the owner and she can set you up with a nice discount."

"Thanks sweetie! Here is another Nuka Cola on the house" said Trudy as she leaned closer towards the Courier and spoke in a low voice.

"Say I've been hearing all kinds of crazy rumors about a Courier making a fuzz all over the strip, you wouldn't know anything about that would you?"

Pablo the Courier began to place his fork in his noodles and turning them clockwise, the hot steam from the noodles gave off a pleasant aroma, making the Courier relax.

"Nope Trudy I haven't heard anything of the sort" said the Courier while Trudy rose her right eyebrow and gave him an "_I know you're lying look_." The Courier ignored it instead he gently tapped Sunny smile's shoulder with his elbow.

"Hey Sunny I almost forgot, I've got a present for you" said the Courier making the local Ranger blush in surprise.

Pablo the Courier reached inside his backpack and pulled out some rifle parts; without blinking in less than a minute he had already assembled what looked to be a heavily modified Varmint rifle.

Sunny smiles looked in awe at the rifle it looked brand new and it sported a larger magazine for extra bullets and a scope with dual sights.

"Take it, it's yours" said the Courier as he handed the rifle to Sunny.

"Why? I mean thank you but…. This rifle looks amazing but I don't" stammered Sunny Smiles bit was interrupted by the Courier.

"Take it it's the rifle you gave me after I came out of Doc Mitchel's clinic."

"What? No way! The rifle I gave you was old, usable but old. There's no way this is the same rifle" said Sunny as she looked at the rifle.

"It's the same rifle except I made some modifications to it, most parts are brand new, I even gave it a new paint job" said the Courier with a proud smile on his face.

"Besides I don't need it anymore" said Pablo the Courier as he pointed towards the rifle on his back; it was another Varmint rifle except it was black and had several modifications to it.

"It's called Ratslayer" Sunny took the rifle and gently placed it next to her.

"Thank you" said Sunny. The Courier nodded in approval.

"Don't worry about it, besides you're the closest thing this town has to law enforcement" after saying that the expression on the Courier's face changed into a serious look.

"Any news on the Powder gangers?" the change of mood was evident as Trudy grunted and moved away towards a bottle of whisky and took a shot while Sunny looked distant.

"We try to avoid the topic but ever since you infiltrated the NCRCF and wiped them out. Whatever is left of them wants nothing to do with us thanks to Joe Cobb's head" The Courier smiled with a proud look on his face.

"Good. I like to see that I made a difference around these parts" said the Courier as he began to wolf down his meal.

"Was that really necessary?" "I mean I know you had to stop them, but kill them all?" "Was that the right thing to do?" asked Sunny.

"I didn't kill them all Sunny, I spared a couple of them besides I still have to deal with Cooke" said the Courier as he kept eating.

"Who is Cooke?" asked the Ranger.

"Cooke is the leader of the Powder gangers; he's some kind of anti NCR rebel. He has to be dealt with, once that's done maybe I'll consider a cease fire, I need to destroy their entire leadership otherwise they will keep attacking travelers and merchants."

"I still think we should leave them alone, they are not as strong as they once were, now they are nothing more than common raiders" "I man why bother right?"

This caused the Courier to turn towards Sunny, his chocolate brown eyes lit as if they were on fire. Sunny's mouth went dry and the young woman felt small.

"You want to stand aside and let them ambush and attack innocent people? Is that it Sunny?"

"No…. of course not! I just think that… ugh! Never mind I'm done trying to talk sense into you" said Sunny as she chugged whatever was left in her beer.

Pablo the Courier sighed and rubbed his temple with his hand and answered.

"My mentor once told me that _if good men do nothing, that is evil enough_" said the Courier as he stood up and dropped some caps on the counter and proceeded to leave.

"Have a good night Sunny" and he left. Sunny Smiles was left wondering what possessed a man like Pablo to take on a cause like that and not loose himself in the process, after a few minutes of silence she decided she was not the thinking type and decided to go back to the safety of the Juke box.

Pablo the Courier entered Victor's shack; the old world flag flying against the wind somehow sent a shiver down his spine, reminiscing on the past with only the music from his pip boy to keep him company the Courier decided to try to get some sleep.

* * *

><p>Craig Boone felt only relief as he stepped out of the Lucky 38. The New Vegas morning rose to greet him, he pulled out a pack of cigarettes that he stole from Pablo's backpack when he wasn't looking. Nirvana swept through his body as he took a drag of his cigarette; he was free of Veronica for a brief period. Eventually he would have to return but as right now he was feeling relaxed.<p>

He took another drag when an unknown female voice interrupted his state of serenity.

"Hey! Excuse me but are you that Courier that caused all of that trouble back in the Tops?"

The smoke in Boone's lungs decided to rebel making the sniper cough violently, Boone felt anger creep inside his core as he glared at the woman.

"No lady, now leave me alone" said Boone hoping the woman would have some common sense and just leave before he chewed her out.

"Oh sorry, The Follower of the Apocalypse well some of us…."

"I am not the fucking Courier lady! He is my boss and he is not in today, he should be back here later today, bother him not me" he motioned to his rifle.

"Now get the hell out of here before I shoot you" said Boone as he watched the woman retreat very quickly.

Boone was very pleased with himself; he would have never shoot the woman but he was pleased with the fact that he could inspire fear on anyone; anyone except Pablo the Courier and his stupid cocky smirk.

Boone took another drag and relaxed once again, when he was interrupted. This however it wasn't someone approaching him trying to convince him to do something. This time he was being watched; his sniper instincts kicked up and he frantically eyed the pedestrians waking down the strip trying to identify the threat.

This time however the threat got to him first.

* * *

><p><em>Breakfast or whiskey? Come on what will it be? Breakfast or whiskey? <em>Rose of Sharon Cassidy asked herself.

It was 9:00 Am and she was starving. The last time she had a full stomach was back in California, now there she was. The once renowned water merchant was reduced to only 25 caps and a killer hangover.

She placed the caps on her gloved hand and pondered what to next. Finally she came to a decision.

"Lacey!" shouted Cass at the merchant/ bartender.

"Yeah? What do you want? Cass I'm not giving out any fucking handouts okay? You better have the caps or I'm kicking you out."

"Again? You're gonna kick me out again?" said Cass as she glared at the merchant.

"You bet your pasty ass I will" said Lacey as she crossed her arms and frowned at the water merchant.

Cass tilted her head to the side and sneered at the merchant "relax I got some caps left."

"The last caps I own, as a matter of fact" said Cass with gritted teeth.

"Considering a promising new career turning tricks?" asked Lacey with a smirk.

"Fuck you. Just give me the finest whiskey bottle you got, I'll worry about being broke tomorrow when I'm sober."

Lacey picked up a very large whiskey bottle and handed it to Cassidy.

"I would feel sorry for you, if I actually gave a damn about people but I don't. Knock yourself out Cass."

"Thanks Lacey. Maybe I'll get lucky and marry the next rich dumbass that walks through that door." Said Cass with hoarse chuckle, she poured herself a shot and took it. Her muscles relaxing instantly. The hot New Vegas sun blinded Cass as someone entered the barracks.

Cass closed her eyes as she waited for her blue soulful eyes to get used to the dark once again. After a minute or two she finally got a good looking at the new comer: much to her surprise it was that boy with the vault suit she met last month.

Except he was different: he no longer was wearing that Vault suit, instead he wore an old duster with a black t-shirt and desert camouflage pants. He looked clean; his hair no longer dirty and greased but what caught her attention was a green bandana.

The grunts at the outpost were swapping rumors about a man with a green bandana last night; doing crazy things but couldn't possibly be right. No single man could ever wipe out a whole prison by himself that was impossible.

Cass watched the boy bend over the counter to ask Lacey for a drink, her eyes wandered to his posterior and suddenly she started to miss that vault suit of his.

She had to admit he was attractive enough; broad shoulders medium built and his short dark hair and his clean shaved face made him look like he was military, but the way he carried himself gave off a vibe that he knew little of discipline.

He nodded with a friendly smile towards Lacey then his chocolate brown eyes were fixed on her, he picked up his beer and walked towards her. Only then she discovered he was not alone as she spotted the strangest dog she had ever seen. Cass brazed herself for the encounter.

"You come around like a bad habit" she said then she looked at the panting dog next to him "and you have the weirdest fucking pets."

* * *

><p>Craig Boone was throwing a menacing glare at his ambusher; the kind of look that would make Manny Vargas piss himself in terror and somehow this woman wasn't fazed at all. Either she was very brave or incredibly stupid, the more he looked at her he was convinced it was the latter.<p>

The woman had red hair which was kept in a ponytail and was sort of mildly attractive in a nerdy kind of way. She seemed to have countless energy as she walked around Boone trying to find the right thing to say, she was wearing a very expensive business suit and black high heels.

"Oh he-he sorry about that, I didn't mean to snoop but I was hoping to talk to the Courier" said the woman as she shuffled her feet and looked around when she noticed Boone staring at her business suit.

"Oh this little suit? This fancy piece of crap was 200 caps at the Potomac attire, can you believe it?" "I could have spent that money running errands or maybe on one of my new trade agreements. Oh how I miss researching!" said the woman.

Boone looked for reasons not to shoot the woman as she began to mumble something about writing a book and becoming famous for it, suddenly her eyes became fixed on his sniper rifle and she asked with an almost childlike innocence.

"Is that a modified hunting rifle?"

Boone was surprised by the woman's knowledge but was even more surprised when he saw her speed as she dashed to take a closer look at the rifle. Boone felt extremely uneasy by having the woman closely inspecting the rifle, completely ignoring his need for personal space.

"Look lady you're violating my private personal space, can you back off before i…" said Boone before he was interrupted.

"Ooooh how exciting! Their calibers are different! Can I take it apart please?"

"Look lady no one touches my rifle and I mean no one! Now why don't you…"

"Your rifle is about to fall apart, did you know that?" said the woman leaving a stunned Boone.

"W-what the hell are you talking about lady?" said Boone as he pulled out his rifle and before he could blink the woman snatched it form his hands.

"The only version of this gun I've ever worked on has been the .32caliber. But they don't look too different" said the woman as she began to inspect the rifle.

"Just as I thought the screws on the frame are too small for this receiver, it's a miracle it didn't get you killed" the woman proceeded to take the rifle apart with an uncanny speed. Then she pulled out of her pocket a bag that had all kinds of gun parts, next she pulled out a bolt and what looked to be a new receiver.

The woman pulled out a small oil tin can that she carried somewhere inside her suit and proceeded to oil up sections of the receiver, next she put the gun together and presented it to Boone with a smile in her face.

"Try it out" said the woman and Boone did as he was told; picking up the rifle and aiming at the air he immediately noticed it was somewhat lighter and the bolt moved smoothly in his hands. Boone smiled to himself then looked at the woman.

"How the hell do you know so much about guns anyway?" "more importantly who are you?" asked Boone.

"Oh three years ago I was just an ordinary trader with a penchant for experiments." "Then someone special came into my life and forced me to learn all those things, crazy huh?"

Boone didn't reply.

"Anyways I gotta go!" "I got another mod for your rifle if you convince the Courier to come visit me and my friends when he comes back" said the woman as she started to leave.

"Wait who are you!" yelled Boone.

"We're staying in Vault 21! Bye now. Try not to die!" said the woman as she left a very confused Boone. He shuffled his feet then he took off his beret and scratched his head. Fearing more crazy people approaching him Boone ran back into the safety of the Lucky 38 casino.

* * *

><p>Lacey the barwoman at the Mojave outpost had seen a lot of crazy things in her life: once she saw a crazy NCR soldier trying to tame a Yao Guai so he could ride it into battle. Only to have the bear go crazy and maul him to death, but this took the cake.<p>

"_Who on their right mind would try to piss off Cass on purpose?" _she asked herself.

Rose of Sharon Cassidy hit her shot glass against the wooden counter with a grunt and proceeded to shoot an icy glare at her quarrel.

"What did you just say to me? Cause you sure got my attention now" said Cass with all the venom she could muster.

Pablo the Courier chuckled to himself and proceeded to sneer at the redhead. Deep inside he was quite unsettled the woman really knew how to glare at someone, he was surprised he didn't turn into ash any second now. But the years had taught the Courier about bluffing and achieving one's objective through lies and deceit. Although he preferred to avoid those tactics sometimes the situation called for it.

He arched his back and took a sip of his beer with a grin he answered "did I stutter? I said: "if you made the caravan, you're responsible for killing it" this made the woman's fury palatable as she tried to stand up to attack the Courier when she was interrupted.

"I may be honest, but at least I'm not blinded by pride" those words stung her and he knew it. Pablo the Courier watched as whatever resolve Cass had, deflated completely as she sat back down and sighed in defeat.

"I….. guess that's fair. But's there's been that voice saying the same fucking thing and the whiskey wasn't killing it" Cass took another shot then spoke with a low voice.

"Give me that paper I'll sign my name to it. No sense holding out to the past between your fingers when it's nothing but dirt" Cass took the paper and signed her name with a pen Lacey gave her. She handed the paper to Pablo and she proceeded to fill up her shot glass once again.

"Here the caravan's yours I feel…. Kinda relieved actually, never noticed how much weigh I was carrying around with just a name" said Cass as she took another shot. Pablo the Courier felt sorry for the woman but reminded himself why he was here and continued.

"So what will you do now?" asked the Courier.

"No idea maybe head back west, although the idea of heading back with my tail between my legs isn't very appealing" said Cass looking distant.

"You could come with me Cass" said the Courier.

This made Cass chuckle then she looked at his face and sobered up.

"You're serious" said Cass and the Courier nodded.

"Go with you? now why the hell would I want to do that?" asked Cass as she watched him. He looked around the barracks then he stood up and took a final sip of his beer.

"Stay here then. You know exactly what is going to happen day in and day out" said the Courier as he started to leave but was stopped by Cass.

"Wait, so fighting boredom is your argument huh? Fine, fuck it! I've done dumber things under the bottle." "Walking the Mojave can't be worse than being here. Alright I'm in" said Cass as she gathered her things and with a whiskey bottle followed the Courier into the wasteland.

* * *

><p>The Caesar's legion standard in the entrance of Nipton made Cass cringe making her grip her shotgun tight she took a couple of steps forward towards a burned rubber tire; as she got closer she noticed it was covered by what looked like grey snowflakes. She leaned in to investigate when Pablo the Courier interrupted her.<p>

"Ashes" said the Courier pointing towards the town center.

"What?" asked Cass as she stood up and walked towards the Courier.

"Ashes Cass; most parts of the town were on fire when I first arrived here." "Ranger Ghost told me to check on the town, so I did but when I got here Caesar's legion had already killed most of the town's people and crucified the rest" said the Courier as he looked at the town hall with a haunted look on his face.

"Were there any survivors?" asked Cass and she looked at Pablo he didn't make eye contact. He seemed to have lost himself in the memory. His eyes were fixed on a road that led towards the town hall.

Pablo the Courier pondered on whether to tell the truth or lie.

"No Cass" said The Courier as he motioned towards the road which led to the exit of the town.

As they left Pablo looked back at Cass who was looking back at the town hall building.

"Are you hungry Cass?" asked the Courier. Cass was about to reply when her stomach decided to speak for itself growling loudly making the water merchant blush with embarrassment.

Pablo smiled and reached with his hand inside his backpack and pulled out an apple and gave it to Cass. Cass had never in her life eaten a piece of fruit or any food at the speed she wolfed down the apple leaving Cass with hungry for more. Pablo the Courier smiled and pulled out what looked to be some beef jerky and gave it to his dog who was more than happy to swallow it in one bite.

"Hey! Why do you give the dog beef jerky while you give me an apple? You better have some more" whined Cass. The Courier grinned at her then shrugged his shoulders.

"Rex has saved my life countless times. He gets priority over someone I'm just getting to know" said the Courier as he met Cass's eyes who were looking at something behind him.

"So… you're saying that because Rex saved your life he gets to have special food is that it?" she raised her right eyebrow and looked at Pablo who nodded. Cass grinned and reached to her boot and pulled out a throwing knife.

"Well this should be easy enough" said Cass as she took a couple steps and she threw the knife towards an approaching raider killing it instantly taking Pablo by surprise.

"Viper gang member" said Cass as she loomed over the dead body she reached for her shot gun and then she looked at Pablo.

"So….. where is my beef jerky?" making the Courier chuckle as he pulled his modified varmint rifle named ratslayer and walked towards the water merchant.

"Sorry but I'm out of food right now but I promise, when we get to Novac I'll get you something to eat" said the Courier with a wink which made Cass roll her eyes. "Now since apparently I failed to clean this place of raiders we…. May be a little late now let's get some killing done" said Pablo the Courier as the trio with guns drawn started walking towards the waiting raider ambush in the mountain pass.

* * *

><p>The elevator's door opened and Boone entered the suite once again with a watchful eye for any of Veronica's pranks when he smelled something delicious making his stomach growl. He walked inside only to see Lily the nightkin on her knees pulling a tray from the oven. She did the best impression close to a smile as she greeted the sniper.<p>

"Hello mister Boone. Would you like some fresh cookies?" said Lily as Boone looked at her confused. To Craig Boone it was odd that the supermutant would address him by his actual name instead of a nickname like everybody else on Pablo's crew. Of course they barely just met and Boone had never had the chance to talk to her before.

Boone although still uneasy to have a supermutant living in the same place as he did, slowly was beginning to get used to her presence. Boone decided he was interested on finding out why he didn't get a nickname like the others when a running figure whizzed past him almost knocking off his feet.

"Cookies!" yelled Veronica as she ran towards the tray that lay on the table, before Lily could stop her Veronica reached in and yelped.

"Fuck! They're hot! I burned my hand" whined Veronica holding her hand in pain.

"Oh my little munchkin hurt herself, come here so grandma can kiss it better" said Lily making Veronica cringe.

"Thanks but no thanks I'm fine Lily I just wished i hadn't left my power fist in my bed."

Boone walked towards the tray and carefully placed the cookie in a small plate and proceeded to leave the kitchen when Veronica snatched the plate off his hands. Boone growled and chased after the Brotherhood scribe. Leaving Lily alone she turned off boredom perhaps caused her to once again get into an argument with Leo.

* * *

><p>The sight of Dinky the dinosaur brought a smile Rose of Sharon Cassidy's face as she reminisced about being eight years old while her mother read her a book about giant lizards. It had been a long time since she thought about her mother, this made her sad. Cass once again began to wonder just what was the fate of her father? Part of her wanted to know while another wanted to just forget him for good.<p>

Her eyes wandered to Pablo the Courier who was busy knocking on a door of a home while Rex was sniffing something. The knocking was answered by an elderly man with a mustache who wore a Brahmin skin outfit and a dark hat.

"Hey there youngster haven't seen you in a while, me and Alice were wondering what happened to you?" "still it's good to see you" said the man.

Pablo the Courier looked at Cass and motioned to her to come and said: "Cass this is Dusty McBride I helped him last month." "Dusty this is Rose of Sharon Cassidy she's a friend of mine" with that Dusty took off his hat and bowed.

"Pleased to meet you miss. Hey youngster, are you and your lady hungry? Alice is fixing me some dinner you both are welcome to have some, especially after all I done for me and the town itself".

"Yes Dusty we're both starving, especially my friend" said Pablo as he and Cass entered the house. They were greeted by the smell of steak and a very happy Alice McBride.

Pablo and Cass sat at the table along with Dusty and began to talk.

"So Dusty how's your cattle now that I got rid of that nightkin?" the elder man looked surprised.

"I thought that was a chupacabra, eh I guess I shouldn't listen to everything that No-bark says" he turned his attention towards his wife who was bringing two hot plates of food "But speaking of food yes my business has been doing better I'm fixing to buy two more Brahmins soon" said the man as he received the plate from his wife it had: beans with maize and a Brahmin steak covered in agave sauce that smelled heavenly.

Cass's stomach growled once again while her mouth watered at sight of food; as soon as she received her own plate Cass forgot her manners and began to eat with frenzy. Pablo, Dusty and Alice looked in wonder as they saw the skinny woman devour her plate and half of Pablo's steak all in three minute's time.

"Well darn! now I've seen it all" said Alice McBride as she looked at the younger woman "when was the last time you had something to eat sweetheart?" asked Alice. Cass sighed and looked to the ceiling hoping to avoid making eye contact.

"Well ma'am I'm a whiskey kind of woman and food always takes a backseat to my drinking, so it's been a while" said Cass.

The elder couple looked at Cass with a concerned look but she dismissed them with an almost childlike smile. Half an hour later Pablo and Cass left the McBride household to continue their journey; Cass's body however had other plans. After all that food she couldn't help but feel tired and sleepy, Cass grunted and called out to the Courier.

Pablo the Courier who was a few steps ahead feeding Rex. He turned around when he heard Cass call his name. He looked at her and he could tell the water merchant was exhausted.

"Let me guess Cass, you ate too much and now you're tired" said the Courier as he began to walk towards her. She didn't say anything she just nodded her head with her eyes closed like a tired child. Pablo the Courier smiled and signaled her to follow him towards the old motel.

"Well Cass you're in luck because I happen to own a room here, you can crash there for a couple of hours while I rearrange my inventory and sell the leftovers" said Pablo the Courier as he guided the water merchant to his room. The first thing Cass noticed was that the room was a complete mess, even for someone who was messy as herself there were all kinds of different clothing sticking out of the closet and guns on the floor. She was slightly impressed until sleep overpowered her and she collapsed on the bed snoring lightly.

Pablo the Courier watched the water merchant sleep soundly and wondered _how long had it been since_ _she had a good night's sleep_, he looked at her freckled face as she slept and couldn't help but to admit she was very attractive, he began to walk to his old fridge and pulled out a purified water bottle and left it on the counter next to the bed. The courier began trying to clean his room without walking his companion up.

He started with the closet which was packed with different sets of armor and clothing. He slowly closed the door trying not to wake Cass when the Courier noticed someone looking through the window.

Pablo the Courier face palmed himself when he recognized the peeping tom and with a heavy sigh he left the room to speak with the intruder.

The old man seemed to jump as he saw the door opening with the Courier greeting him with a nod.

"No-bark I see that you didn't waste any time finding the new girl in town huh?" said the Courier he watched the old man who squirmed about avoiding making eye contact. Finally summoning the will, he spoke.

"Look boy, being a scientist who also happens to be a detective it's my job to investigate any new suspicious folk that may come through here. Also I think I may have misplaced my pants around here somewhere" said No-bark looking around. The Courier cringed as he noticed he indeed misplaced his pants.

"Eh, No-bark how? Maker… you know what? I don't even want to know!" said the Courier as he tried not to make eye contact.

"It's easy boy! It's that damn Gecko! I chased him over that dumpster over there I'm completely sure he keeps his treasure around here somewhere." "I was just about to catch him when I saw that new scientist guy Chris walk by, so I took off my pants to camouflage my face to become invisible!" said No-bark.

"That's too much information No-bark" said the Courier trying to remove the image from his mind.

"Doesn't matter boy I'll find that treasure I'm just here to warn you to be careful" said No-bark. "That man Boone lost his wife to the mole rat men who kidnap beautiful women to steal their hair, so they can make wigs for themselves." "It would be a shame if your lady lost her beautiful red hair" said No Bark.

"She's not my lady" said the Courier narrowing his eyes at the old coot.

"I saw the way you were looking at her boy, you can say what you like, but my mama raised no fool" Pablo the Courier tried to fight the blush rising on his face instead he acted angry.

"Get out of here you old coot!" yelled Pablo as he watched the old man run off faster that he expected. Once he was gone Pablo the Courier groaned and walked down the stairs towards the Dino Bite gift shop to sell his spare weapons while Rex slept on the carpet of the room guarding Cass.

An hour later Pablo entered his room and woke Cass up by telling her that they needed to leave now if they wanted to make it to New Vegas by dusk. The sleepy redhead agreed and complained about her throat being dry but was pointed towards the purified water bottle next to her and she proceeded to drink for it as Pablo left the room.

Rose of Sharon Cassidy sat on Pablo's bed and began to stretch her limbs and yawned, her blue eyes focused on the half empty bottle of water she had on her right hand and she began to drink from it. Next she walked towards the bathroom. She looked at herself in the cracked mirror: Cass noticed just how much weight she had lost since she left California. With another groaned she poured what was left of water her hair and face.

Cleaning herself with a towel and fixing up her hair Cass left the motel room to find Pablo waiting outside the door. He locked the door of his room and proceeded to start the journey to New Vegas. Cass bit her lip and thought "_It's now or never" _and she spoke_._

"Hey Pablo" said Cass as she began to descend down the stairs.

"Yeah? What's wrong Cass?" asked the Courier.

"Nothing's wrong it's just, well now that I'm free from the outpost. I was wondering if you would like to make a detour" "I would like to pay my respects to Cassidy caravans. Check out where they died"

Cass looked at the Courier: he had a neutral face as he looked at her. Cass began to braze herself for disappointment when he spoke: "depends, where was your Caravan hit?" this took her by surprise she was sure he would say no. This was a pleasant surprise.

"Upside of Vegas hear tell. Trapped in the Mojave Outpost so I wasn't able to run there when I heard" it's been weeks since it was hit. The whole site must be a Cazador's nest by now" said Cass as she watched for his reaction. His face was calmed as his brown chocolate eyes locked on her blue ones.

"Can you show me on my pip boy where it was hit?" Cass nodded and got closer to Pablo. She looked in wonder at the strange device Pablo had on his left arm; she had heard about it from her mother that her dad had once followed a man that carried a similar device with him. Somehow the thought seemed to be appropriate. She was amazed as he pushed a button the whole map of the Mojave Wasteland came to life and after a few seconds she was able to point the exact location where her caravan was hit.

"Do you think there is anything left?" asked the Courier, Cass sighed as she thought about it.

"Only wishful thinking on my part, but nonetheless I'd like to say my goodbyes" the Courier gave a faint smile and nodded "of course Cass let's go we have a couple horse before dusk" Cass nodded and they proceeded to continue their journey.

* * *

><p>By dusk Cass and Pablo arrived by two shacks that acted as rest stops. Luckily for the trio Cass recognized her friend and fellow water merchant Lupe who gave them two purified water bottle's with a discount. Quenching their thirst the trio finally arrived to the site of the ambush. Cass eyes grew wild as she looked in despair to the remnants of her friends and employees.<p>

"God, there's almost nothing left. Looks like whoever it was, was just in the mood for killing" said Cass as she ran towards some ashes, Rex decided to go around the site sniffing for clues while Pablo the Courier got closer and placed his hands on Cass's shoulder. She paid no mind to the Courier's touch, her eyes focused on the ashes.

"Most of the cargo is ash too, not burned but… disintegrated. When I heard the reports I assumed ash meant burned not this…" Pablo the Courier looked towards a Brahmin rotten carcass.

"So close to the Vegas wall too, don't that beat all." "Must have happened during the day though, though they hadn't made a camp" The Courier looked at the carcass: it was missing both heads and it was still tied to the carriage.

Let's check this place out said the Courier as he knelt and began to look for clues; all he found was a bottle of vodka he picked it up and placed it inside his backpack.

"You know what? what happened to my caravan. Not the first time I've heard about an attack like that" "one of our caravans got hit a few months back and everything had been burned just like this" said Cass as she pointed at the ashes.

"Do you want to check it out?" asked Pablo as Cass turned to him.

"Yeah, it's a ways though hell of a detour, are you sure?" Pablo the Courier looked at her and then looked towards New Vegas "It's the middle of the night now we'll take care of it tomorrow besides you need a good night's sleep and since we're going to be working together, I need you with a clear head."

Cass chuckled and wondered if that was all he needed her for. She felt compelled to ask anyway.

"So what exactly are going to do once we get to New Vegas? And where am I going to sleep?" the Courier turned and smiled "you'll see."

* * *

><p>Rose of Sharon Cassidy didn't believe in fate, she considered it fucking naïve that someone was meant to do something, however she couldn't help to think just how much her life had changed in twelve hours; she had been broke without any way to make it back to California and now she was in an elevator inside the biggest landmark in Vegas.<p>

"I've never thought I would be inside the lucky 38, although those robots creep the hell out of me" she turned to Pablo "well now that we're here, what are your orders Boss man?" Pablo the Courier chuckled "I hope you're joking, cause I don't want no other nicknames from anybody" said the Courier.

"Of course it's a joke, I ain't calling anybody Boss. Anyway who else is on this team you're building?" asked Cass as the doors of the elevator opened.

"You're about to find out" said the Courier with a wink and began to walk outside the elevator as Cass followed she saw Rex run towards the big room in the middle while two figures came out from a room to the right: one was a young girl that wore some kind of rags, the other one was a NCR soldier who looked like he already hated her.

"Oh Pablo what the fuck took you so long! Boone was trying to have his way with me! Where were you!" all eyes were on the NCR soldier as he looked flustered and angry.

"What the fuck! I did no such thing!" said the man defending himself what he didn't see was that the girl was carrying a camera and turned quickly and took a picture of his angry face and ran off, Leaving Pablo the Courier shaking his head in disapproval.

"That was Veronica and she does random shit like that, anyway this is Boone he… well if he grunts and punches something that means he likes' you" "there is also Lily who is a sweetheart but her looks are something else" well Cass why don't you go introduce yourself to Veronica she will show you around and get you something to eat we can talk tomorrow" said Pablo the Courier as he entered the big room in the middle where Rex was barking happily.

Rose of Sharon Cassidy decided she should do as told and went to meet Veronica. As Cass entered the room she noticed two beds and in one of them was the younger girl; she sat cross legged giggling to herself while eating a cookie. Veronica reminded her of this tiny little creature called a monkey she once saw in California, she finally noticed her and stopped chewing.

"See something you like?" asked Veronica while Cass felt uncomfortable as she took off her hat and began to scratch her head, she couldn't help to notice the resemblance between Pablo and Veronica and wondered if they were related.

"No thanks, but Pablo said you could show me around and find me some food" the young girl eyed her once again then replied: "and a bath too you smell of whiskey and dead Brahmin" Cass rolled her eyes at that comment and looked away.

Veronica stood up and signaled the redhead "come on I'll show you around" as Cass began to get the tour of the Courier's lounge she knew that she was completely out of her element. but was eager to find out what would happen next.


	5. Hail Caesar Part 1

**Authors Note: Hi there! first of all i want to apologize for taking so long updating but for some reason this chapter was really hard to write. As i reached the half point i realized this chapter was gonna be really long so i decided to split it into two chapters. Also i want to thank everybody for the favs and the follows and a special shot out to LiliXLover for reviewing last chapter. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter and as usual Fallout belongs to Bethesda i own nothing.**

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><p>Hail Caesar Part1<p>

Pablo the Courier was dreaming. He knew it the moment he looked down and saw that he was wearing small children red boots, a vault suit, and his old baseball cap. What followed next were a series of images he did not recognize: a Giant steel door closing and several people in vault suits crying. With a flash they were gone, replaced by a memory of himself as a child crying. Then a grown up extending her hand towards him, the silhouette of a tall blonde woman wearing a green bandana appeared before him. Pablo took the woman's hand and felt a faint sting of happiness. However he was soon engulfed in a white light; followed by a voice calling out to him.

_Wake up_

Pablo blinked and saw only darkness. After a few seconds of silence his vision adjusted and now he was able to see the fan above him silently giving him the much needed cold air he needed to sleep. He sat up upright and ran the back of his right hand through his forehead. He looked around his room in the Lucky 38: everything was quiet which meant everyone had gone to sleep. He looked at his pip-boy and saw that it was 3:00 AM and he felt his eyes getting heavy once again.

With a groan Pablo went back to sleep.

* * *

><p>Pablo found himself dreaming once again except this time was different: he was standing in the Mojave outpost's barracks, except it was deserted. He looked around for any sign of Lacey but there was no one at the bar. Realizing this Pablo grinned and walked over to help himself to some free drinks.<p>

He sat in one of the bar stool and reached for a vodka bottle and proceeded to pour himself a shot. Suddenly the main door opened and the Courier was barely able to distinguish the figures of two female NCR soldiers before they rushed him with great speed, each soldier grabbing one of his arms and started giggling like schoolgirls.

"Wow! You're the Courier everybody is talking about!" "That's awesome! Right Becky?" asked one of the girls.

"Yeah! We've heard so much about you! Did you really wipe out the Powder Gangers in the NCRCF with just a knife?" asked Becky.

Pablo the Courier was unsure what to do so he decided to just go along with it.

"Actually it was a modified varmint rifle and lots of explosives" answered the Courier but before he could explain he was interrupted a loud squeal.

"Oh My God that's amazing! How can we ever repay you?" said one of the girls as both started playing with his vault suit.

"You know. All I ever wanted was a thank you" said Pablo with a distant look in his eyes. He had never got a thank you out of anybody he helped, only caps and supplies and sometimes ammo. The more he thought about the more he felt like he needed a drink.

He looked at the shot of vodka and reached out to get it he grabbed it and realized that he was alone once again. Confused Pablo looked around for any sign of the girls but was met with nothing so he picked up the shot glass and proceeded to take the shot when a loud voice made him jump, spitting the vodka.

"There you are" said a calm female voice.

The Courier looked at a figure walking towards him; the first thing he noticed was the cowboy repeater, then he noticed the NCR Ranger uniform causing him to almost fall off his stool, only after she stepped into the light he was able to see her pale skin and her white hair.

"Ranger Ghost?" asked Pablo confused as hell.

"Yes. I 've been meaning to thank you for going into Nipton and letting us know what happened" "The NCR could use useful soldiers like you, maybe then we could kick Caesar back into the hell he came from" said Ranger Ghost as she got closer to the Courier.

So close in fact that he blushed madly as she whispered in his ear.

"consider this your payment" said Ranger Ghost as she proceeded to unbuckle his belt causing the Courier to tense up his body frozen but at the same time eager to see what she was going to do next.

The belt on his vault suit fell to the floor. He watched as ranger Ghost wet her lips and proceeded to reach for his zipper in his pants when.

_BOOM!_

The Courier watched as the image of Ranger Ghost exploded in a cloud of smoke and he was left weaponless scared and a little bit aroused. He cleared the smoke with his right hand tried to find the source of the shot.

The source wasn't hard to find as Pablo looked at the image of a slim female wearing a cowboy hat wielding a shotgun. The figure walked towards him.

"C…Cass?" asked Pablo nervously as the cowgirl got closer, he noticed that she didn't look very amused.

"Cass what are you doing here? Listen I swear I don't even know those women … I mean woman! Yeah! It was just one" said the Courier as he tried to do damage control.

Cass only proceeded to push Pablo off his stool, which he did with a loud yelp. He hit the ground and felt pain on his back but was very glad that he did not land on the back of his head. He groaned as he tried to rub his back but was stopped by Cass's boot, that was now pinning him to the ground. Pablo the Courier was very surprised by the redhead's actions, even more when she decided to straddle him.

"Listen Cass I can explain" said Pablo but was interrupted by Cass who seemed to have found a comfortable position on top of him and was now getting closer. So close he could smell the whiskey in her breath and the freckles in her pale neck. Pablo knew what was coming next as he watched the redhead leaning closer and he closed his eyes preparing himself for a kiss that could not come any faster.

Instead he felt warm saliva as Cass licked the right side of his face with her tongue, snapping Pablo into reality.

"What the hell!?" asked Pablo more to himself than to Cass, he looked at her for answers when she responded with a loud bark.

"Woof!"

Pablo snapped his eyes open only to find Rex the cyberdog licking his face.

"Ah! Rex, stop!" Screamed the Courier as he sat up and shuddered vowing to make sure that Rex would stay with Veronica from now on.

"Go bother Veronica Rex, I need to take a bath" said The Courier as he rolled to the edge of the bed and started looking for his clothes. Rex Barked once again and then he took off leaving the door open.

* * *

><p>Pablo the Courier found his camouflage pants and proceeded to put them on when out of the corner of his eyes he saw Veronica enter his room and closing the door behind her. Pablo reached for a water bottle that he had next to his bed and took a sip then looked at Veronica who was waiting for him.<p>

"What is it Vero?" asked the Courier while eyeing the young Brotherhood scribe who looked like she had not slept at all.

"I'm hungry! When are you going to cook breakfast?" asked Veronica while she placed both hands on her hips and proceeded to glare at him. Pablo the Courier looked at Veronica confused.

"What are you talking about Vero? It's too early. Let me take a bath and then I'll cook breakfast" said the Courier as he yawned and mumbled something to himself but Veronica continued to glare at him.

"It's 10:00 AM! You've been sleeping for twelve hours! That gorgeous redhead you brought with you has been pacing around like a crazy person for hours!" upon hearing Veronica mentioning Cass. Pablo the Courier jumped under his bed and began to scramble looking for his clothes.

With super speed he reached for his socks and picked them up all while panicking.

"_Oh shit! She's probably furious, I bet she's gonna punch me and demand I take her to see that caravan_ _ambush!"_ The Courier began to dress himself with haste then turned towards Veronica:

"Have you seen my shirt Vero?" asked Pablo as he looked around his room and found his old duster and he proceeded to put it on while he waited on a reply from Veronica but none came. The Brotherhood scribe kept glaring at him finally he gave up the idea of finding his t-shirt. Instead he approached his closet and opened it up revealing a small arsenal of armors and different suits but the Courier already had his mind made up.

He pulled out a pre-war dark blue vest that said _Police_ on it and he placed it on his bed and began to open it by moving the zipper. Next Pablo the Courier pulled out the ceramic Kevlar plates and inspected them: they seemed to be in excellent condition. He guessed that the owner had little or time to use it before the bombs, but that didn't matter now. All that mattered was that his visit to the Nevada Highway Patrol Station had given the Courier a valuable edge on future battles.

He returned to his closed and retrieved a clean white t-shirt and headed out the door ignoring Veronica. The first thing he saw as he exited Room was Cass; the cowgirl was sitting in a chair across the room, her hat covering her face making her expression unreadable, next to her was her shotgun.

Pablo the Courier felt inadequate as he watched the cowgirl, memories from his dream came back flooding to him with embarrassment and desire. Suddenly he felt a hand on his shoulder and he quickly towards that direction only to reveal Boone.

"Boone? Is there something wrong?" asked the Courier surprised by the sudden appearance of the most anti-social member of his crew.

"There was a woman yesterday. I don't know who she is, but she seems to know a lot about guns" Pablo's interest picked and he grinned at Boone. But all he got was a glare from the scout/sniper.

"Wipe that stupid grin of your face Courier! And no! It wasn't that kind of meeting!" shouted an oddly worked up Boone. A few seconds later he looked around and seemed to have calmed down after taking a couple of deep breaths, then he spoke:

"She was looking for you actually" said Boone.

"Me? What could this woman want from me? Did she at least give you her name?" asked the Courier but Boone just shook his head.

"No. All I know is that she's some kind of genius when it comes to weapons and she said she had a gift for you and me if you came to visit her and her friends".

"Friends? What kind of friends? Boone the more I hear about this, the more it sounds like a trap" said The Courier.

"I don't think so. The woman really knows what she's doing, I don't know about her friends though" "now that I think about it she also sounded foreign, my best bet is that her friends are foreign too and she said that they were staying in Vault 21" said Boone.

Pablo the Courier led the information sink in as he watched Veronica join the group. The more he thought about it the less dangerous it sounded, even though they were complete strangers they were staying at Vault 21 and Sarah wouldn't let an armed group inside, so perhaps it would be safe to go there.

Finally reaching a consensus he looked at his companions and nodded.

"Alright guys we'll check it out, go get ready, because we're going in full force. Rex will stay to guard the place while all of us go there in case something goes wrong and Cass…" said the Courier as he looked at the cowgirl who was also watching him closely.

"We'll go find that caravan as soon as we deal with these tourists and we get something to eat alright? don't think for a second I have forgotten my promise" said the Courier with a small smile then he looked at the rest of his companions I'm taking a bath I expect everybody to be ready when I finish" and with that Pablo the Courier prepared himself for one of the longest days of his life.

* * *

><p>Rose of Sharon Cassidy was surprised at herself. Normally she would have already insulted or punched somebody in the face but oddly enough she found herself in a good mood.<p>

Maybe it was the fact that she slept for 10 hours straight which was a record, since it had been years since she got such a good night sleep and also it had been a long time since she felt safe. But now she felt strange, as she followed the group, she couldn't help to remember, back when her mother used to tell her stories about her father. John Cassidy and the people he traveled with: one was a supermutant named Marcus; unfortunately she had forgotten the names of the other companions. However she never forgot about the legend of the Chosen One.

Cass looked distant as her thoughts drifted from the stories told to her during her childhood and she wondered _if this is what her father felt like when he traveled with the Chosen One_?

Cass carefully smiled to herself making sure no one was watching her and followed the group as they neared a small white door. Cass was the last one to enter the hotel and was surprised to see that what looked to be a small building was actually a massive office. Cass blinked for a couple of seconds, her blue soulful eyes trying to get used to the dark but welcoming environment.

Cass watched from the rear as the group relaxed: Pablo was the helm while Boone and Veronica were at the flanks. ED-E was floating around while Lily was hidden behind them. Cass reached for her whiskey flask and looked around admiring the neatly organized office.

Cass took a sip of her whiskey and grunted in satisfaction and decided she earned the right to treat herself to another shot when out of peripheral vision she spotted a blonde haired figure approaching them.

She did not care for good manners so she took another sip of her whiskey but was taken back by how the blonde girl greeted their leader. The girl wrapped her arms around him with a loud squeal making Cass spit out her drink into Lily and Boone who turned around and gave her an icy glare.

Fortunately for her The Courier seemed to have not noticed her outburst and was busy talking to the girl. Which made her feel relived but a small part of her felt annoyed that the girl was taking so much of his attention and she found herself breaking ranks and getting closer to hear their conversation.

She walked towards them and expected to be acknowledged but both seemed way too focused to see the redhead.

"So Sarah, Let me get this straight Sarah; this woman and her friends have been staying here for a week? I was here two days ago how come I didn't see them?" asked the Courier.

"Well. You see they're a big group so they were either exploring the strip and or they were too busy arguing with each other in their rooms that you didn't see them" explained the blonde girl who apparently was named Sarah.

Cass looked at Pablo who seemed to take in the information very slowly, enough for her to frown and start suspecting he was perhaps looking at Sarah's breasts. But then Courier just scratched his head and shrugged his shoulders.

"I… I guess well, I supposed I should go meet them" said the Courier while looking down the stairs that led to the entrance of Vault 21.

"Yeah! Moira and the gang are so nice! You'll love them! Anyways, don't forget to bring me some suits next time you visit Bye!" said the over-enthusiastic blonde. Making Cass cringe but she had other things to worry about since they were headed to meet a group of people they knew nothing about.

* * *

><p>Pablo the Courier led his group through vault 21 hoping he was able to remember the way, when he heard the sound of music coming from somewhere close. Pablo motioned his group forward towards the central atrium where a large of group of people having a party: most seemed like regular wastelanders wearing their most expensive outfits for a night in the strip. No one seemed to stand out, but then he spotted movement out of the corner of his eye.<p>

He turned towards a figure of a woman wearing a black suit who was bending over a jukebox. Pablo Boone and Veronica seemed to have lost themselves in the hindquarters of the woman who seemed to be fixing it since the moment she stopped. The sound of Radio New Vegas filled the room.

The group managed to get a good look at the woman now that she finished, and she turned around: she was a skinny mildly attractive redhead around her late twenties; her hair tied up in a ponytail and wore what looked to be a very expensive black suit.

Pablo the Courier heard Boone whisper in his ear: "that's her".

Just as if the woman had heard those words she looked directly at them and with a loud squeal she charged at the group who seemed taken back.

"Wow! Holy Three Dog! You actually came! Bricks said I was crazy! But then again, that's what they all say" said the woman as she was now in front of them looking them over, then her blue eyes turned to Boone. She reached inside her pocket and pulled out what looked like gun part, she threw it at Boone who managed to catch it effortlessly, which earned him a suspicious glare from Cass and Veronica.

Next she turned her attention towards Pablo.

"So, are you guys part of a club or something?" asked the woman, which made the Courier look at her funny.

"W-wait what?" asked the Courier in confusion. The woman just smiled and pointed at his bandana.

"Your bandana, the wandered has one just like that one. Except his is red, this must mean that you both must be members of the super people club!" yelled the woman raising her fist up in the air in a dramatic pose.

Pablo the Courier looked confused and asked: "What club? What are you talking about lady?" the woman raised both eyebrows and laughed.

"Gee! I forgot to introduce myself! How silly of me! My name is Moira, Moira Brown please to meet you!" said the woman as she extended her had for a greeting. Pablo didn't find anything suspicious so she shook Moira's hand.

"Pleased to meet you Moira my name is Pablo, but everybody here calls me Courier" said the Courier as he watched Moira smile.

"Yeah that's the same with the wanderer. Nobody remembers his name. But I do! it's-" the sound of heavy footsteps interrupted Moira, as the group watched a tall and buff woman with a military haircut wearing olive green military pants and a white tank top approach Moira with eyes that could melt metal.

"Goddamnit Moira! I told you not to talk to strangers in this town! They won't let me use my weapons in this town! And the last thing I need is having to save your pasty ass with this fucking pea shooter!" said the woman as she pulled out a sub machinegun.

"Whoa! Easy! Bricks calm down! Let's not repeat the incident you caused last time you mistook someone for a threat" said Moira as she tried to calm the angry soldier down.

"He's the Courier Bricks! The man we were looking for, remember?" said Moira as she tried to get Bricks to lower her gun. Fortunately the news seemed to give Bricks pause.

"You're the Courier? Fuck me! Now I know I've been duped! You look the same age as the wanderer and you don't look that much but then again that's what I thought ,when I first met the wanderer" "tell me kid, have your balls dropped yet?" asked Bricks with a mischievous grin.

"What the fuck is the wanderer? Is it some kind of bar or what?" asked the Courier confused.

"Shit! You never heard of him? Which rock have you people been hiding under?"" anyway he's a very important figure back home" said Bricks.

Veronica who had been very quiet during the whole conversation finally spoke: "Where is this home? Where are you guys from anyway?"

Both woman looked at each other for a second and then answered in unison.

"We're from DC" said both women in unison with a small sense of pride and a smile in their faces. However that smile faded away when they saw that the Courier's group remained silent looking confused. This made the east coasters frown and sigh.

"We're from the Capital Wasteland!" both yelled and that seemed to bring the Courier's group back to life as they all said "Oh" with a dumbfounded look. Bricks looked like she was about to punch one of them until Moira being the self-proclaimed leader/mechanic/cheerleader of the expedition took charge.

"Anyways he-he now that we are all happy wasteland friends, I want to give you something for coming all this way" Pablo the Courier looked at his companions confused then turned towards Moira.

"Can I see your vault suit?" asked Moira. Pablo the Courier raised an eyebrow at the woman wondering if she was joking but after a few seconds he realized she was serious. He reached inside his backpack and gave her his vault 21 vault suit. Moira looked at vault suit for a moment her eyes filled with joy, suddenly she turned towards Pablo.

"I meant your original vault suit, where is it?" Pablo opened his eyes as big as saucers and felt cold sweat start to invade his forehead.

"Are you crazy lady, he only has one vault suit! I've traveled with Pablo the longest, I would know!" said Veronica defending Pablo. Her eyes were unleashing a menacing glare at both women.

Moira seemed unfazed or perhaps completely oblivious as she said "I know a vaultie when I see one" Veronica felt a tight know in her stomach and felt like punching the tourists when she felt Pablo extend his hand blocking Veronica's path.

"She's right Vero, it's ok" said the Courier as he locked eyes with the women. Boone and the rest looked at Pablo full of confusion as he spoke:

"I'm sorry but I don't have my original vault suit anymore. I traded it for weapons years ago" said the Courier.

"I told you he was a vaultie" beamed Moira as she talked to Veronica "Oh well I suppose I can work with this suit" said Moira as she pulled out a giant pair of scissors and some metal rods from her pocket and began to work her magic.

How did you know I once lived in a vault?" asked the Courier as he watched the woman putting together what looked to be some kind of holster.

"Simple, the pale skin underneath your pip-boy. It's the mark of all vaulties " said Moira "the wanderer has one too, except his is paler. Your tanned skin tells me you have been roaming the wasteland a lot longer than him."

Veronica stood in silence; she could not believe what she had just heard. All this time she had traveled with Pablo, he had never told her he once lived in a vault. This made her uncomfortable. It made her angry to know that he was hiding things from her, of course that made no sense since she herself was hiding things from him, such as the reason why she was traveling with him and the fact that she was ready to head back home to the bunker.

Fortunately for the group Cass decided to break the silence.

"Alright… so I take this whole vault guy thing was a sort of a secret?" well personally I couldn't give a flying fuck where you are from, I just want to get this over with so…" said Cass as she took off her hat and began to scratch her head.

"Yes! I completely forgot, you should go see the rest of the group. They are eager to meet you and they have jobs for you, once you finish those jobs I'll be more than happy to pay you for your troubles" said Moira as she pointed them towards the direction of a lone man sitting a in a very dark corner. The man wore a brown duster, his long messy brown hair somehow worked to his advantage allowing him to hide in the shadows. What bothered Pablo was the man's pale skin tone. He looked as if he had not seen sunlight in years. Pablo mentally prepared himself to approach the man but was surprised to see that Veronica had beaten him to it.

The man opened his eyes and stood up and greeted the group with a theatrical bow, as the group looked on he gently took Veronica's hand and kissed it making the Brotherhood scribe blush madly.

"Greetings humans, it is a pleasure to make acquaintance with all of you, my name is Vance and May I ask; which one of you is the Courier?" Pablo the Courier looked at Veronica who seemed almost enthralled by the man's voice so he stepped forward.

"My name is Pablo but they call me Courier" said Pablo as he locked eyes with Vance. Vance gave him a small smile and retreated back into the shadows. Pablo almost jumped in surprise as he saw the man's eyes glow in an ember like color in the darkness. Vance sat comfortably in a couch and motioned Pablo to sit next to him but before he had time to say no Veronica jumped in the couch and smiled at Vance.

"Hi I'm Veronica! You want to get some milkshakes? Or whatever is it you straight people get when they go on dates?" asked Veronica doing her best puppy eyes, which made Vance chuckle.

"Veronica my dear I would love to go out in a date with you but unfortunately I happen to be a married man and must gracefully decline your" Vance was about to continue but was interrupted by Veronica who stood up.

"This is such bullshit! Here I am, talking to the only guy I've ever felt attracted to and he is married… Fuck! I was better off being a lesbian!" said Veronica as she glared at everyone.

"When did you stop being a lesbian? You were all worked up when you met Sarah…." Said the Courier confused but stopped talking when he met Veronica's furious glare.

"Shut up Pablo! The point is … shit I forgot! Anyways I'm going to the ladies room to take care of lady business then… I'm gonna punch someone" said Veronica as she stormed off leaving an embarrassed Courier looking at Vance wondering what to say.

"Sorry Vance my companions can be a handful sometimes" said the Courier trying to ease the situation. The older man regarded Pablo for a moment then spoke.

"Don't worry about it. Through the years I have become accustomed to people reacting to me and my flock in negative ways, I am pleased to see that you are a human who does not jump to conclusions and attacks me on sight." Pablo the Courier looked at Vance and asked.

"What do you mean by your flock? Are you part of some cult?" asked Pablo regarding Vance suspiciously.

"No my friend it is not a cult, I am merely a shepherd that has chosen to take care of the weak and the downtrodden, children that have exiled by their parents and peers just because they have been born different" said Vance as his speech continued.

"I would like to continue enlightening you human but you seem to be in a hurry, so I will get to the "point" as you humans like to say" "I paid a hefty amount of caps to join this expedition, with the hopes of finding other gifted individuals like me" said Vance looking at Pablo with a flash of pride in his eyes.

"Over the years I have managed to obtain and nurture the gift of finding people like me, however this land is very different from DC. Here the tyrannical sun reigns supreme, and makes it impossible for me to try to reach out and retrieve this child from this uncaring world." "Unless I try to do it by night, where the lack of knowledge of the terrain and not to mention these "fiends" that seem to surround the outskirts of the city" "as you see friend; I have a very large predicament and I'm hoping you will seek this child and bring it to me, so I may give it a home" said Vance as he looked at Pablo in the eyes waiting for an answer.

Pablo the Courier did not know what to say. He took a deep breath and spoke.

"You want me to go look for a child?" asked Pablo while he looked at Boone for any kind of guidance, but unfortunately as expected the NCR sniper just shrugged his shoulders.

"Yes friend but I understand the laws of the wasteland, I once met a young man like you; he came looking for a member of my flock a child named Ian West. He managed to convince me to let the child go and then helped me with other tasks. For his services I bestowed upon him a gift, a gift that has saved his life countless times. If you would help me I would gladly bestow my gift to you as a reward".

"What kind of gift is it?" asked the Courier.

"It is a gift that mankind has dreamt about for centuries, but most important it is a gift that will keep you alive should you run out of Stimpacks and healing items" said Vance as he proceeded to look at the wall.

"Are you interested?" asked Vance.

"Can you be more specific? I want to know what kind of gift you are talking about."

"I'm afraid not, my hope is that you will take on this mission with the sole goal to rescue this child and not focus on the reward, selfless acts are as rare as gold nowadays" said Vance.

Pablo the Courier looked at Boone then turn to Vance and quietly nodded, Vance grinned in satisfaction.

"Excellent! Now let me ask you; do you have a radio?" asked Vance. The Courier nodded.

"Good. May I have your frequency? The child seems to be somewhere around Camp Searchlight. Let me know when you are ready to go and I will meditate and give you the child's exact location over the radio" said Vance then he asked.

"Any questions friend?" Pablo the Courier shook his head and said "no" Vance nodded then extended his hand.

"Very well friend I shall not take any more of your time, good luck" said Vance as he departed towards his room. The companions watched the strange man leave, Pablo thought it now it would be a good time to make a joke but then he saw a skinny brown haired man walking towards them.

The man seemed to be in his early 30's but what caught his attention was his clothing, he was wearing a scientists outfit.

"Hello there. I see that you have already met Vance, even though he is a little esoteric for my tastes, he is a good sort you know" said the man as he greeted the group.

"Greetings my name is Alexander Dargon and I am the chief scientist in charge of the project purity project and I must say it's a privilege to finally meet you Courier" said Alex as he extended his hand towards the Courier who looked at it for a couple of seconds and reluctantly shook it.

"It is nice to meet you Mister Dargon but could you explain, what is Project Purity? I have never heard of anything with that name…" said Pablo as he looked at the man in the eye looking for any hints of deception.

"That's unfortunate. However sad I may be for the lack of information, I suppose trying to get any kind of knowledge across the country must be next to impossible, thanks to Caesar and his legions" "at least all except Moira and her Wasteland Survival Guide, it's quite a hit in the Commonwealth or so my mentor tells me. Ha-Ha who would have thought a bunch of pencil necks and geeks would have need for survival guides right! Ha-Ha" said Alex laughing looking at the Courier and his group to join him on the joke but was silence.

For Alex Dargon those seconds seemed to have turned into hours, as he began to scratch the back of his neck longing for someone to break the silence to save him from his terrible joke. Fortunately the only female on the group; a redheaded cowgirl who seemed to be drunk began coughing saving him from the awkward moment Alex drew breath and began to try to save his speech.

"Well since you guys seem to lack the same sense of humor as my students I'll get to point: The Capital Wasteland although slowly recovering thanks to the efforts of its people, lacks the flora and fauna that your land seems to have plenty, so I would be willing to compensate you. If you gather some plants, they needed. Pablo the Courier looked the pictures one by one and then looked at Alex.

"I assume you are going to pay us for our trouble?"

"Yes we brought with us an entire barrel of Aqua Pura with us that I can offer as payment and since this is a desert I'm sure it must be extremely hard to find clean pure water… said Alex but was interrupted by Pablo.

"Actually it's not that hard, New Vegas gets its water from Lake Mead" said Pablo with a small sense of pride but as he saw Alex's smile fade into a frown he took pity on the scientist.

"But I'm sure I could always use extra water" said the Courier and sighed.

"Yes that's wonderful news! And I'm sure if you need more in the future Moira will gladly pay you for your troubles, oh and speaking of the devil" said Alex as he motioned towards Moira Brown who was walking towards the group carrying Pablo's vault suit with a smile on her face.

"Hey guys! I'm glad to see that you met everybody and guess what? I finished your gift" said Moira as she unfolded the modified vault suit she was carrying.

Pablo the Courier looked in wonder to see that his vault 21 suit now had several modifications: a leather leg holster combined with a kneepad connected to a leather belt with several pockets. But what caught his eye was, a steel shoulder pad connected to a leather bullet belt that ran across his chest.

Pablo the Courier was speechless which made Moira smile from ear to ear.

"You like it huh? Yep I remember when I first modified a vault suit for the first vaultie I met years ago, geez I wonder; whatever happened to her? Oh well who knows, but my best work was when I first met the wanderer. He still has my suit… wherever he is now" said Moira with a sad smile on her face.

"But yours is different see for yourself" said Moira as she opened the zipper and revealed the interior which had a mesh attached to it.

"See I never had time to add this to the wanderer's but yours now has a very strong protective mesh inside the suit and you can use it to put some more armor inside making you almost bulletproof" said Moira with pride.

Pablo's mind quickly raced as he smiled thinking about the Kevlar ceramic plates he was wearing and extended his hand at Moira with a Smile.

"Thank you Moira this suit is going to come extremely handy."

"No thank you" said Moira as she shook the Courier's hand "don't forget I have some more goodies for you if you fulfill the missions my group asks of you but here; I got this food sanitizer that may come in handy for your meals so they can be more delicious."

Pablo the Courier nodded and gladly took the small tool and nodded at Moira when out of the corner of his eye he saw Veronica leaving the restroom with a relieved look on her face, he looked at Moira and spoke:

"Well it seems we got a lot of work to do, so we'll see you some other time Moira" as the group stared to leave they were stopped by a loud voice.

"Hey! What the hell is going on here?! Why didn't anybody tell me the Courier guy showed up!" Pablo the Courier watched as all of the members of the expedition including Bricks; groan then lower their heads and sigh in unison. The Courier felt uneasy, he felt the need to leave before finding out just who that voice belonged to.

Unfortunately he was too late as he saw a young girl around her early twenties wearing a modified, badly died in all black mercenaries outfit. What caught his eye however was the girl's entire outfit was died black, her long red hair being the only thing not died as she also deemed to be wearing makeup and black eyeliner.

Pablo looked at his group as the girl drew near: Boone as usual was expressionless, Cass seemed to look at her Whiskey bottle in rage about something, and Veronica the ever friendly scribe was glaring at this girl. Pablo turned towards the girl and as she got closer couldn't help to admit she was mildly attractive if she wasn't dressing up like she was going to a funeral.  
>"Hi I'm Bittercup" said the girl.<p>

Confused and doing his best not laugh at the girl for having such a weird name Pablo gave her a weak smile.

"Nice to meet you Bittercup my name is Pablo but they call me Courier" but before he could say anything else Bittercup let out a happy squeal.

"Finally! Someone who doesn't judge me like all these bozos, they think they all know everything about you, like just because I'm different doesn't mean I'm a freak. It's like Hello! This world sucks" said Bittercup as she glared at Moira and Bricks.

"You're not a freak you're just a freeloader" said Bricks glaring back at Bittercup.

"Whatever loser I'm no freeloader, I have no idea what your damage is but don't talk to me like that ever again ok?" said Bittercup as she watched Alex Dargon bite his nails and look at her.

"I'm sorry to tell you this but you are a freeloader Bittercup. You see each of us paid the powers that be a hefty amount of caps, 250 caps to be exact, in order to be part of this expedition. You in the other hand just showed up and talked your way into the expedition" said Alex but the fury in Bittercup's eyes forced him to shut up.

"Shut up! Nerdo! I don't have to take that from you! I'm the Lone Wanderer's girlfriend!" Pablo the Courier was taken back by this statement but then looked with curiosity as most of the members of the expedition groaned and face palmed themselves.

Moira looked at the younger girl with an almost sad smile on her face and said "Bittercup we've been through this a million times everybody knows that he's with…"

"Lies! Everybody knows that's a bunch of Brahmin shit that Three Dog just cooks up for all of those gossiping assholes that listen to his station" said Bittercup.

Knowing all hell was about to break loose. Pablo cleared his throat which made everybody especially Bittercup look at him confused.

"Look, although I would love to stay to see this catfight. I have a very busy day ahead of me so what is it that you need me to do?" asked the Courier cutting to the chase.

Bittercup looked at him with a bewildered look her face but then her eyes narrowed as she spoke "fine just find me lots of white chalk and black dresses. Moira will pay you for it" said Bittercup as she looked Moira who looked like she was about to protest but she instead sighed in defeat.

"Oh well It was nice to meet all of you and now I must go. I will return as soon as I finish one of your missions" said the Courier as his group left they could hear Bittercup getting into another argument with someone and they were grateful that they were leaving.

* * *

><p>After a brief stop for lunch at the tops Pablo and company departed towards the Horowitz farmstead. From there they walked the road until they came to an old beat up billboard that had the silver rush logo on it next they were greeted by a foul stench that could only meant they were close to the site of the Griffin Wares Caravan.<p>

Rose of Sharon Cassidy had fire in her eyes as she approached the site but oddly enough Veronica beat her to it as she dashed to pick something up that laid next to a Brahmin's corpse.

"Hey monkey girl! Hand of the merchandise, I need to see all the evidence in this place after you can take your pick if Pablo says it's ok" said Cass as she started looking through the remains of the caravan.

Veronica with childlike glee ran towards the Courier with the plasma rifle in her arms.

"Look Pablo a plasma riffle! We only have two of these at the bunker can I please keep it Pablo? Please?" Aasked Veronica.

"I thought you didn't like to use guns" Vero said the Courier.

"I don't. Guns are for novices. But the Brotherhood could definitely use new guns, we send a scouting party twice a week and once in a blue moon we find any decent weapons that we can use. Especially Enclave stuff, this like Brotherhood scavenging picking folklore."

"You mean you only find energy weapons once in a blue moon. Because those are the only weapons your code bids you to take Vero" said Pablo.

"Yeah kind of, I guess. The Brotherhood believes that they are saving the world by hoarding as much technology as possible, but they get boners whenever they come across any energy weapons. Normal guns just don't give them that kick they crave so much" Veronica grinned.

"You know boys and their guns, so… can I keep it? Come on it's not like you ever use energy weapons please?" asked Veronica unleashing her dreaded puppy eyes. Veronica knew that Pablo would be helpless against its effects. After a few seconds he sighed in defeat and Veronica lifted the rifle and did a victory dance.

Rose of Sharon Cassidy was feeling impatient so she yelled "Monkey Girl! Stop bothering Pablo! He and I have business here. You can talk about your energy weapons later" said Cass turning her back on a very annoyed Veronica who decided to take out her anger on a radscorpion she spotted not too far away.

* * *

><p>Pablo the Courier walked towards Cass who seemed too occupied to notice him. He looked back at Veronica and resisted the urge to yell at her that she should not stray too far from the group but he kept quiet and went over to Cass.<p>

Rose of Sharon Cassidy seemed completely immersed in the task of finding clues. So much that she barely noticed Pablo kneeling next to her as she picked up some dirt with her gloved hand, then she slightly opened her hand and watched as the dirt slipped from her fingers.

Without making eye contact she spoke: "besides the plasma rifle your sister picked up, this place has been picked clean. This … is Brotherhood level murder" Cass turned to Veronica and continued "are you sure she isn't involved?" asked Cass.

Pablo the Courier blatantly refused: "no way! The Brotherhood doesn't do stuff like that! Unless… unless of course you have some kind of futuristic weaponry the Brotherhood will leave you alone" said Pablo with all the conviction he could muster, even though he knew very little about the Brotherhood.

"Yeah… I guess… they don't do things like that. This… this was done with a purpose" said Cass as she stood up and motioned the Courier to follow her while the rest of the group stayed a few feet behind.

"Let's poke around a bit, see what we can find. There might be something in the wreckage" said Cass as she led Pablo towards the wreckage. Pablo the Courier was unable to find anything good until he came across the remains of some poor bastard and his backpack. Inside he found a cup of noodles and a bottle of Vodka inside. Grinning like an idiot Pablo stood up and turned to Cass who was busy trying to retrieve an old piece of paper from a dead Brahmin.

"I think I found our dinner, so did you find any_" Pablo broke off suddenly. His brain was awestruck as he saw Cass bending over trying to pull the paper by force. Her old, worn pair of blue jeans showcased her perfect figure. Another flashback from his dream came at him as she turned towards him holding the old paper triumphantly. Before she could Pablo turned around and looked elsewhere trying to hide the blush in his face.

Cass walked towards him. "Check this out. It looks like a map, got the route west of Vegas and… they marked another spot" said Cass as she pointed at the map "over here. That's fucked up!" "Right in the middle of fucking nowhere."

"Want to check it out?" asked the Courier.

"Yeah something is wrong, I can feel it. It's no closer than the first so if you prefer let it be, let me know" said Cass.

"No it's fine Cass. Although after this you're gonna treat me to a nice steak dinner at the tops" said The Courier with a mischievous smile. Cass just scoffed.

"Do you have any idea how much that is gonna cost me?"

"Don't worry about it. I'm sure I can talk to them into giving you a discount" said the Courier and he tapped Cass in the shoulder and pointed to the road with his head.

"Come on Cowgirl let's go solve this mystery" said Pablo as he walked towards the rest of the group while Cass just rolled her eyes.

* * *

><p>Veronica had decided to distance herself from the rest of the group and was now looking through the sights of the plasma riffle she had procured from Pablo. She tried to remember the lessons paladin Ramos had taught her regarding plasma rifles back when she was just a teenager.<p>

Veronica huffed in frustration as she found herself too angry to concentrate , she was still angry with Pablo for not telling her that he had once lived in a vault, and the fact that he had been acting weird all day. Before she could try to understand why she was mad in the first place she spotted something moving behind the rocks.

She spotted something orange moving at a slow speed. Veronica grinned and she once again looked through the sights but this time with a purpose. She watched the orange thing's movements and waited until it came close to a spot where the rocks wouldn't block the view.

Veronica gripped her rifle and took a couple of deep breaths in order to stabilize herself. Before the orange thing came into full view Veronica took the shot. To her horror she saw how the plasma beam burned part of the left orange wing of the biggest Cazador she had ever seen.

Panic seized her as she spotted five more coming her way. Veronica aimed her rifle and fired wildly into the pack and as luck would have it she managed to hit one and the Cazador turned into a pile of green puddle. This only seemed to have pissed the Cazadores even more and they flew at Veronica with fury in their blood colored eyes.

Veronica kept pulling the trigger frantically until a click told her that she was out of ammo, until a laser shot joined in and she turned around to see Ed-E firing at the Cazadores while the rest of the group was readying for battle.

"Veronica Run!" screamed the Courier as he kneeled over a small ridge Ratslayer in hand and started shooting, Cass went around the group shotgun in hand trying to flank the pack while Boone started firing his hunting rifle.

Veronica did as was told and began to run towards the safety of the group but she knew that the cazadores were getting closer and that she may not get there in time, for the first time in a long time she was afraid. Then she saw Lily jump over head wielding the biggest super sledgehammer she had ever seen and smashing it into a Cazador then she lifted it up and turned it counterclockwise and killed another one using it as some sort of baseball bat.

Pablo the Courier kept shooting frantically in to the giant Cazador, but his 5.56 bullets seemed to have little to no effect on it. He started panicking as he watched the Cazador getting closer to Veronica but a shot rang out hitting the wings of the Cazador making it stager making Pablo look at the shooter.

"The wings shoot at its wings! Yelled Boone as he started reloading his rifle, without any hesitation he looked through his scope and started shooting once again.

Veronica was running for what felt like hours and she was exhausted. Veronica felt like she wasn't going to get back to the group in time so she reached inside her robe to find the laser pistol she always kept with herself in case she needed to shoot something she couldn't punch.

She pulled out her pistol and turned around towards the direction she thought the Cazador was in and fired. Unfortunately she didn't count with the speed of the Cazador and soon felt the creature's sting hit her in the left shoulder. Veronica let out a pained scream which made her drop her pistol.

Veronica felt an agonizing pain on her shoulder and looked at the Cazador who was about to pull out and try to sting her again. Veronica channeled all her energy supplied by the adrenaline in her body and punched the Cazador with her powerfist with all her strength, pushing it back while she fell to the ground feeling all the pain in her shoulder.

Veronica's vision blurred as she watched the Cazador stagger but then it saw Veronica once again and she felt like she was done for when she heard a loud gunshot and felt a strong wind pass by her. Whatever came from that sonic boom made the Cazador explode in a million pieces splattering blood everywhere.

"Veronica!" Screamed Pablo as he dashed towards the scribe and kneeling to her side unsure what to do. The rest of the group except Boone made it a few seconds after. Pablo had never had to treat poisonous wounds so he started panicking unsure what to do.

"Fuck! What do we do?! I don't know what to do!" said Pablo who suddenly felt the sting of a slap to his face and it Cass who had delivered it.

"Calm down right now we can't allow ourselves to freak out, what we need right now is some anti-venom to counter its effects" Pablo nodded and his mind as he reached for his backpack and with desperation pulled out an empty stimpack with a flask of anti-venom.

Cass gently injected the anti-venom into Veronica's left shoulder and then she followed by a stimpack into her arm then she followed by ripping a piece from Veronica's gray robe and tied it to her shoulder as a makeshift tourniquet and the group looked at Veronica.

"How are you feeling Veronica?" asked Pablo.

Veronica looked at him as if she was dazed and confused and just answered "I'm so cold…" which made Pablo even more frantic.

"She needs medical attention" said Cass. "We could take her to the Vegas clinic but it's too far I don't know if she can handle such a big trip" Pablo began to pace back and forth trying to come up with a plan when finally he remembered.

"The Followers! We need to take her to the old Mormon fort! I helped those fucks so many times they better come through for me this time!" grunted Pablo then looked at Cass who locked eyes with him.

"Alright cowboy, the Followers it is then" "come on we don't have much time" Pablo turned to Lily who was covered in Cazador blood.

"Lily can you pick up Veronica? We need to get her to the Mormon fort in Freeside" asked Pablo.

"Of course sweetheart, Grandma will take little Becky to the nice doctors" said lily as she picked up Veronica.

"Sorry Cass but it looks like we're gonna have to take a little detour" Cass looked at Pablo and said "it's alright I can wait, monkey girl is more important" said Cass.

"Alright let's go Boone! Wait…" said Pablo as he looked around "where is Boone?"

* * *

><p>Craig Boone was exanimating some very big footsteps a few feet away from the group. He tried to trace the footsteps but they disappeared, frustrated he picked up the only piece of evidence he had which was a rather large bullet case. His suspicions were proved correct as he looked at the rim. 50 Cal Auto it was all it said and that was enough for Boone.<p>

He headed back to the group but only saw Pablo who was glaring at him.

"Where the hell you been?" "We need to go now!" said Pablo as he started to leave but was stopped by Boone.

"We're not alone" said Boone.

"What are you talking about? We don't have time Boone" said the Courier.

"There is someone watching us somewhere, it was him who killed that Cazador not us" looked at Boone frustrated.

"Look we'll worry about it later ok? Right now we need to get Veronica to the Followers so they can treat her, right now I don't care who is following us let's go!"

Boone the expressionless sniper rose both his eyebrows and was about to start arguing but relented.

"Fine let's go but if anything happens to us it's your ass who I'm gonna blame Courier" said Boone as he proceeded to follow Pablo as they hurried towards the old Mormon fort.

* * *

><p>At a distance not too far away a man proceeded to de-activate his stealthboy and rose to his feet. His power armor made a noise telling him that he needed to start repairs soon. As he stood up he lifted his sniper rifle over his shoulder and started to follow them in the shadows.<p>

The girl would be the key to fulfilling his mission.


	6. Intermission

Intermission

It was a cold night in Freeside. The old beat up pre-war clock marked midnight but the patrons of the Atomic Wrangler didn't seem to care. All except this one man who stared at the clock as if he caught it sleeping with his wife.

He was sporting an old pre-war casual white shirt with a red vest along khaki pants and black shoes. His gray hair and balding scalp gave the impression that he was in his early forties and the look in his hazel eyes said: _I make no friends wherever I go._

It was one of those nights where he could see himself loose his patience and give up his cover and beat the living shit out of the drunk next to him. This wretched pile of human excrement, if anyone would dare to call a man that was so drunk and smelled so bad that if you placed him next to a Brahmin no one would be able to tell who smelled worse.

The man stood up from his seat and looked over at the drunk, who was rather busy entertaining a whore that worked here, with crude jokes about Brahmins mating with supermutants.

He took a deep breath trying his best to contain his anger and he took a last sip of his beer and proceeded to drop some caps on his table and left the Wrangler only to be greeted by the cold wind of Vegas.

To his surprise the streets were deserted. The cold weather must have driven everyone away which made him feel at ease. Since his arrival with the members of the expedition, he had problems with big crowds. Rivet City being the city with the biggest population in the capital wasteland couldn't hold a candle to the amount of people that lived in the Mojave.

The first time he had entered the strip with the rest of the expedition he experienced what Vance had called a panic attack, or at least that's what that blood drinking freak said. But _who could honestly trust a man whose eye's glow in the darkness and not see the hunger in his eyes as he looks at you_. The man shook those thoughts away and continued to walk towards a dusty crumbled building. That was the meeting point.

He immediately regretted it, as he could still smell the horrible stench that came from that cheap whisky Bill Ronte was so in love with. The man walked towards a pillar and placed his back against it and tried to relax. The man missed his power armor but he knew the plan; he had to forget about all their confines and their warmth, strength and power and trade it for stealth and efficiency.

He closed his eyes and relaxed he had to wait a while until his contact would arrive. He remembered the ground was filled with broken bottles and debris. If anything was going to approach him it would make a big noise as it would have to step on the broken glass to get him. That meant he would have the advantage and his laser pistol would do its business.

Minutes went by and he felt sleep begin to claim him, he started thinking about his wife and dreamed of her welcoming him back with some pre-war old lingerie when a loud voice coming out of nowhere startled him.

"Tristan"

This made the paladin jump and his feet almost lost balance among the debris almost causing him to slip and hit his head against the pillar. He looked everywhere until one of the shadows took the form of a dusty behemoth.

Tristan reminded himself that he was in charge and that he should at least try to scold this man for startling him. But he knew that there was only one man in The Brotherhood of Steel capable of completing this mission and that was the man standing in front him right now.

The ever unfriendly and ever silent introverted Knight Captain Irving Gallows.

He cursed himself for bringing Gallows with him, Dusk would have been a much better and friendlier option but it hadn't been his decision it was Sarah's. He was just following orders so he steeled himself and addressed Gallows.

"You look like shit Gallows. Is that scribe girl that hard to follow that you are covered in dirt?" asked Tristan.

Gallows responded with silence. Tristan began to slowly loose his patience.

"Well? Are you gonna say anything? I need to know what's going on with the girl and her group" Tristan was met with silence once again. This behavior started to frustrate him greatly, finally when he thought he could not take any more Gallows took off his helmet: revealing a relatively young black man with dark brown eyes sporting a buzz cut haircut and a well-kept beard.

Tristan was taken back; he had never seen Gallows without his helmet. He wondered if even the pride had seen him without his helmet.

What came next was even more of a surprise; Gallows started to take off his power armor until all he had left was a very strange but at the same time familiar recon armor, leaving Tristan speechless.

"This land ain't kind on power armor" said Gallows looking at the dirt covered remains of his power armor.

"Doesn't matter now, I prefer this recon armor anyway. Sarah gave it to me; she said I should test out this prototype" said Gallows nonchalantly.

"Wait. Is that the MK II Prototype? Asked Tristan, Gallows didn't say anything he just nodded and kneeled and upholstered his new sniper rifle.

"I got what I need take this power armor and stash it somewhere, until we leave" said Gallows as he took apart his rifle and began to clean it.

Tristan was taken back and angry at the same time. Now he had to find a hiding spot for the power armor in the middle of the night in Freeside. _Great, just great_ he thought to himself.

"What about the girl? Has she headed back to the bunker?" asked Tristan concerned that she may leave any moment and that they would lose their chance. Gallows seemed to have noticed it as well and he was quick to reassure him.

"The girl ain't going anywhere Tristan. She was attacked today by these giant mutant flies and she was injured, she's over at the Mormon fort right now being treated, so we got time" snarled Gallows.

"I take it you don't like our vacation? Asked Tristan hoping he was far enough to avoid being punched in the face by Gallows.

"There are supermutants that need to be maimed and killed and here I am playing babysitter" said Gallows as he glared at his rifle.

"Look I know this land is strange but it was the elder's decision to send us over here and I know he has our best interest in mind" said Tristan trying to soothe Gallows.

"How is getting in touch with a chapter that is more likely to shoot us than talk to us our best interest?" asked Gallows.

"It worked with the Texas chapter didn't it? Now not only we got an ally against the supermutants and a trade agreement and you got a fancy new sniper rifle right?" asked Tristan.

"The Texans are different they may be gun blazing wild men but at least they got an open mind. This chapter is too close to California to have a mind of its own" said Gallows.

"Well… I guess we'll see when we meet them" said Tristan as he watched Gallows cleaning his gun he was amazed that he had managed to get so much information out of Gallows so he felt lucky and asked.

"So… what do you think about this Courier character?" Gallows remained silent for a moment thinking, then spoke:

"He's a decent shot but not as good as the wanderer"

"Give him time Gallows, the wanderer didn't become who he is overnight I'm sure this Courier will rise to the challenge" said Tristan trying to remain optimistic.

"And if he doesn't rise to the challenge?" asked Gallows.

"Well then Sarah will send him to his death anyway" and with that both men stared at the dark blue sky and wondered what was to come next? As expected they found no answers so they waited for Veronica to wake up.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note: Hello and Happy New Year! well here i am in New years Eve trying to do a small update when i should be drunk somewhere. But i wanted to update a chapter before this year was over, now this tiny update is to give some background on the expedition and who is in charge of the expedition. Now everybody knows just how bad ass Gallows is, i just hope i did his character some justice. Anyways i'm going to try to update my other Fics so the next update may take a little while but i hope to have it out by late January so stay tuned!<strong>


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